The figures do not lie, right now, one in three boys and girls in northern Gaza suffers acute malnutrition. The United Nations agency that works to defend children’s rights, Unicef, has confirmed the death of 27 minors due to malnutrition and dehydration. Without food, without water and without sanitation, the catastrophe can reach proportions rarely seen in a crisis like these.

Acute malnutrition has doubled in a month and affects one in three children under two years of age. In Rafah, where the little humanitarian aid that Gaza receives enters, this percentage drops to 10%, according to data from this UN agency, which estimates that at least 23 boys and girls died in Gaza due to malnutrition and dehydration in recent years. weeks. Figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, raise this tragic toll to more than 30 children.

The UN warns of the risk of famine as the number rapidly doubles and continues to rise. So far in 2024, acute malnutrition has increased among children in the northern Gaza Strip from 15.6% to 31%. Despite the Israeli government’s denial, NGOs insist that it is a very serious situation. Between now and May there is a very significant risk that the entire population of Gaza will be in a situation of famine,” explains Vicente Stehli, Director of Action Against Hunger Operations.

Vicente Stehli has just left Gaza and is a direct and reliable witness of what is happening there. Hunger, he says, is everywhere: “In the north there is no chicken neither meat nor anything at all.” they have bread left, but prices have skyrocketed: a 25kg bag of flour in Gaza now costs 500 euros and the money no longer exists. To the south in Rafah, you can still find some food but there are too many: almost 1.5 million people and there is not enough for everyone.

The latest arrivals of humanitarian aid to Gaza are six tons dropped from the air, a challenge for security, in addition to not reaching the people who really need it. Stehli warns that the aid “does not reach the people it should reach, who are mothers who can’t move“. For NGOs, the best access route is by land.

Since January, nearly 1,000 trucks have entered daily, with 24 tons each, and this only through the Rafah crossing, a route that has slowed down in recent months. However, everything is inspected by Israel, Sometimes the reasons why they turn back an entire convoy are, really, inconceivable as “a metal from a tent or a mat.” Which means that a 24-ton truck has to turn around.