Ministry: 57 children in Gaza have died from the effects of hunger

Fifty-seven children have died from the effects of malnutrition during the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), said on Tuesday, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Peeperkorn, who represents the WHO in the Palestinian Territories, said in a video call that the UN organization has not yet verified these figures. However, he noted that the WHO has observed an increase in malnourished children.

In connection with this, he reported many young patients with pneumonia and gastrointestinal diseases. "You normally don’t die from starvation, you die from diseases associated with it," he said.

From the WHO's headquarters in Geneva, it was stated that in recent weeks, more than 57 children may have already died due to the food crisis.

Since the beginning of March, the Israeli military has not allowed aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.

The armed forces accuse the Palestinian extremist organization Hamas of selling aid supplies at inflated prices to the suffering population and using the proceeds to pay for their fighters and weapons.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned at the beginning of the week of an escalating famine in the coastal strip, based on a recent analysis indicating that the entire population of the Gaza Strip – around 2.1 million people – is affected by acute food insecurity. Of these, 244,000 people are already suffering from famine, the FAO said.