Children starving to death in Northern Gaza Hospitals: WHO Chief

GENEVA (AFP): An aid mission to two hospitals in northern Gaza found horrifying scenes of children dying of starvation, amid dire shortages of food, fuel and medicines, the World Health Organization said Monday.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency’s visits over the weekend to the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals “were the first since early October 2023 despite our efforts to gain more regular access to the north of Gaza”.

The findings were “grim”, he said on X, adding that “the situation at Al-Awda was particularly appalling, as one of the buildings is destroyed”.

The Kamal Adwan hospital, the only paediatrics hospital in northern Gaza, was  overwhelmed with patients, he said.

“The lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children,” Tedros said.

In all, the Gaza health ministry has said at least 16 children have died of malnutrition in aid-deprived northern Gaza.

The United Nations warned last week that famine in the Gaza Strip was “almost inevitable” because of the war that has been raging in the Palestinian territory since Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack inside Israel on October 7.

That attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

It also saw the militants abduct 250 hostages, of whom 130 remain in captivity, including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against the Palestinian territory has killed more than 30,500 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

In addition to the dire lack of food at the two northern hospitals, Tedros also cautioned on X that “the lack of electricity poses a serious threat to patient care, especially in critical areas like the intensive care unit and the neonatal unit”.