News - Middle East: UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini emphasized that starvation and malnutrition continue to devastate the Gaza Strip, confirming the deaths of at least 100 children due to hunger and malnutrition.

Lazzarini stated on Wednesday that over 40,000 children have been killed or injured by Israeli bombings in Gaza, adding that at least 17,000 children are now without guardians or separated from their families in the Strip.

He noted that one million children in Gaza suffer from severe psychological trauma and are unable to attend school, calling on the world to take urgent action to save the children in the besieged territory.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday eight deaths in the past 24 hours, including three children, due to hunger and malnutrition.

The head of the Pediatrics Department at Nasser Medical Complex confirmed that deaths from the rising polio outbreak in Gaza have reached five cases, including four children and one woman.

Palestinian medical sources in Gaza reported that the death toll from Israeli airstrikes targeting aid workers in northern Gaza since Wednesday has risen to 12, confirming that 81 people were killed by Israeli bombing since dawn, including 45 in Gaza City.

Amid the overlapping crises of starvation and the genocidal campaign by the Israeli occupation, now ongoing for 677 days, Gaza faces an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe affecting one million Palestinian children, under a suffocating Israeli siege with a complete lack of food and medical supplies.

The Israeli enemy launched the war on Gaza after Hamas led a surprise operation against the regime on October 7, 2023, in response to intensified Israeli violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The devastating Israeli war has resulted in the deaths of over 61,000 Palestinians so far, the majority of whom are women and children.