Juan Alguacil
Physician and Professor of Public Health at the University of Huelva
This scientific study is essential and necessary . The fact that a United Nations agency (UNRWA), whose main objective is to provide humanitarian assistance and essential services such as education, health, and protection, conducts relevant research studies that end up being published in the world's most prestigious medical journal is, in itself, a message that should give many public (and private) health administrations pause for thought.
The results of the study are difficult to believe, not from a scientific point of view, but from a moral and human point of view. How has the international community allowed almost 55,000 children under the age of five to reach a state of malnutrition that requires therapeutic nutrition and urgent medical care? And almost 13,000 with severe acute malnutrition. All of this is preventable, as it has been caused by insufficient food supplies. But looking ahead, the outlook remains bleak. The affected children require regular treatment with therapeutic foods that are still unable to enter the Gaza Strip and, in extreme cases, need hospitalization in an area where almost all hospitals have been destroyed. Beyond serving as evidence to support the accusation of genocide, as the consequences will drag on into future generations (if they survive), these data should make us all ashamed.