A total of 151 children have perished through acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, and the majority in 2025, according to the latest figures of the Palestinian health authorities.
When announcing Jana’s death in an online video message, UNICEF communication manager, Tess Ingram, explained that she had been treated in the hospital twice by the condition and recovered the first time in 2024, only to fall and waste on September 17 of this year, in the midst of continuous restrictions on Israeli aid.
“The world failed Jana so many times, failed her in the food, twice“Mrs. Ingram insisted.”A forced girl to endure so much pain due to deliberate decisions that were taken to restrict food entry into the gaza strip. “
Mrs. Ingram explained that UNICEF had originally evacuated Jana (Photo above) for the treatment in southern Gaza more than a year ago and that had been recovered. “I remember having sustained her little fragile hand and helping her enter the ambulance,” he recalled.
Hungry
Once Jana was better and was discharged from the hospital for the first time earlier this year, she and her mother, Nesma, returned to northern Gaza during the top fire to be with her family.
But the aid block allowed hunger to return, claiming the life of Jana’s two -year -old sister, Jouri in August. At that time, Mrs. Ingram warned that Jana was “barely enduring” in a hospital in Gaza City Where I was receiving treatment.
She He also stressed that the health system devastated by Gaza’s War could not give the child the attention he needed. “His last hope, medical evacuation outside Gaza’s strip, failed him. No country took a step forward and could get Jana“Said UNICEF worker.
The young people of Gazan suffer from moderate and severe acute malnutrition receive therapeutic foods ready to use (RUTF) in the last remaining hospitals of the enclave, even at the Friends of the Catient Society hospital in the city of Gaza, where Jana was being treated.
No hospital capacity
Only a few days ago, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned that four more hospitals had been forced to close in the north of the war devastated by the war only this month.
In all of Gaza, there are only 14 hospitals, said the UN Health Agency, while humanitarians have repeatedly warned that they are overwhelmed with trauma cases and fighting to face.
‘Children are being punished’
Unicef ​​insisted that the story of Jana and Jouri was a “devastating reminder that the lives of children in Gaza are at risk, not only due to air attacks, but also due to living conditions.”
He also emphasized that Gaza’s malnutrition crisis has reached catastrophic levels with the entire child population of less than five, more than 320,000 children, at risk of acute malnutrition.
In July alone, 13,000 children were very malnourished, “the highest monthly figure ever registered” and representing more than 500 percent since the beginning of the year, UNICEF explained.
“This war must end now. Help in the Gaza Strip should be allowed, including food and nutrition supplies. Humanitarians should be allowed to do their work,” said Ingram.
“Gaza’s children are being punished for these decisions and are killing them.”
How medical evacuations occur
Medical evacuations (Medevacs) of the strip coordinated by WHO follow a strict seven -step protocol, from the initial derivation of the patient by a doctor to the evacuation of the UN Health Agency, based on a list presented to the host countries that is then approved by the Israeli authorities.
The latest OS Medevac data indicates that 7,841 patients have been helped to leave Gaza since the war broke out there on October 7, 2023, after terrorist attacks led by Hamas against Israel. More than 5.330 of these patients were children. Approximately 15,600 patients still need Gaza’s medical evacuation.
On September 29, who supported the evacuation of 14 patients and 38 companions from Gaza to Jordan and 15 patients and 65 companions to Italy, from a field hospital led by the UN partner, the Palestinian Society Red Medcent on the coastal road in Al-Mawasi.
“Patients, companions and caregivers will begin from here with ambulances, buses and escorts of those who become safely through the areas of combat Kerem Shalom,” explained Dr. Athanasiosioso Gargavanis, who trauma surgeon and leadership of the Gaza team.
He explained that from Kerem Shalom, the Palestinians would leave the strip before being transported to Ramón airport in southern Israel, then to the host countries.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Gargavanis. “Many more Medevac missions are needed, and many more receiving countries are needed. The World Health Organization undertakes to support such missions.”
Who continues to ask for the restoration of medical references to the West and East Bank and for more countries to accept patients.