Babies are starving in Gaza, we need more than strongly worded statements - Yorkshire Post Letters
From: Mike Baldwin, Raven Road, Nether Edge, Sheffield.
On July 10, 15 people including eight children and two women were killed by Israeli forces while queuing for food supplements in Gaza. According to the World Health Organization, 90 per cent of pregnant and nursing mothers in Gaza suffer from severe malnutrition undermining their ability to produce breast milk.
It also causes premature births and spontaneous abortions. Doctors Without Borders says that one out of every five pregnant or nursing women in Gaza is in danger of dying from malnutrition.
Israel has blocked the import of Baby Formula to a trickle. UNICEF reported last month that 5,800 children were diagnosed with malnutrition in Gaza in June and that on average, 112 children a day have been hospitalised due to severe malnutrition since the start of this year.
Professor Nick Maynard, a consultant gastrointestinal surgeon from Oxford currently volunteering in Gaza, stated: “The malnutrition I'm seeing here is indescribably bad. I saw a seven-month-old who looked like a newborn. The expression ‘skin and bones’ doesn't do it justice.
“We have almost no liquid or intravenous feeds – children are being given essentially 10 per cent sugar water, which is not proper nutritional support. I had tears in my eyes seeing how unbelievably thin these children are.”
He continued: “The enforced malnutrition and attacks on civilians we are witnessing will kill many more thousands of people if not stopped. The deliberate starvation of the Palestinian population in Gaza seems utterly unconscionable.
“Getting adequate food and aid into Gaza is essential. The fact the world is letting Israel get away with this is deeply upsetting, something must be done to stop this collective punishment of the population of Gaza.”
We see every night on the news further deaths of those desperately trying to obtain food and have heard reports of Israeli soldiers ordered to shoot at the starving crowds. On July 20 alone, 85 were killed.
In May, in a joint statement with France and Canada, the British Government stated: “If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.”
On 21 July, the UK government and 24 other countries released a strongly worded statement condemning the Israeli military’s killing of hundreds of Palestinians seeking food in recent weeks and calling for an immediate end to the conflict.
The death toll in Gaza is now over 59,000. If this is not justification enough for more than a 'strongly worded statement' then surely the forced starvation of babies is.