Children are starving to death as malnutrition rates have officially reached famine level in Gaza.
“The world has been watching as children have suffered the unthinkable for nearly two years in Gaza,” says Save the Children Australia CEO, Mat Tinkler. “And now, we have confirmation that hundreds of thousands are being slowly starved to death. None of us should accept this.”
No child should die simply because they don’t have access to food. But that is the reality for the children of Gaza – their lives and futures are now at a greater risk than ever. We urgently need your support to protect them. Please donate today.
DONATE NOW TO OUR GAZA EMERGENCY APPEAL
Amid this very tough situation, and with help from our committed supporter community, our teams have been working tirelessly to deliver aid to children. Despite the access challenges, we have managed to keep our life-saving services running and have already reached more than 1.6 million people with urgent support.
Right now, our teams and partners in Gaza are still supporting families across 100 locations with:
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screening and treatment for malnourished children and mothers, providing medical interventions, supplements and high calorie biscuits and pastes in our healthcare centres
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deliveries of clean water via trucks to 20 communities
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distributions of cash and vouchers to families – as one of the largest cash providers in Gaza
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learning centres where children receive mental health support as well as classroom lessons in English, Arabic and maths to help them regain a sense of normalcy
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safe spaces that allow children to play, as well as access our child protection case management services.
Meanwhile, our teams in the West Bank, Egypt and across the region are positioning supplies at the border, so we’re ready to scale-up our response as soon as access allows.
“The Government of Israel must immediately end the use of starvation as a weapon of war and lift the siege of the Gaza Strip, allowing aid including food and nutrition supplies into Gaza at the scale required,” says Mat Tinkler.
This is the first time famine has been declared in the Middle East, with more than 132,000 children aged under five in Gaza at risk of death from acute malnutrition.
Malnutrition in children can be stopped, and children can recover from it, if treated in time. Save the Children knows how to treat it, and we are working to relieve the famine crisis facing Gaza. But we need a surge of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and the safety and access to treat the most vulnerable children.
That’s why we are urgently asking for your support. You can help provide the critical response needed by children and families to survive this crisis and to help them recover. Together we can help save lives.
PLEASE DONATE NOW
Children in Gaza have been paying the heaviest price for an unrelenting war they’ve played no part in. Save the Children is calling on the international community to take every possible step to stop the Government of Israel from intentionally starving children and families in Gaza. We continue to push for a definitive ceasefire and for increased humanitarian access, so children can get the help they so desperately need.
Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.