siege that has prevented the entry of milk, nutritional supplements and other food aid. The statement from Gaza’s Government Media Office last Saturday comes as Israeli forces intensified their attacks on the territory, killing at least 60 Palestinians, including 20 people in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. The media office said Israel’s deadly blockade constitutes a “war crime” and reveals its “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon to exterminate civilians”.

The office denounced what it called “this ongoing crime against childhood in the Gaza Strip” as well as “the shameful international silence regarding the suffering of children who are left to fall prey to hunger, disease, and slow death”. It also said it holds Israel, as well as its allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, responsible for “this catastrophe”, and urged the United Nations to intervene and open the crossings into Gaza immediately.

The statement came days after the UN agency for children (UNICEF) warned that the number of malnourished children in the Gaza Strip was rising at an “alarming rate”. It said that at least 5,119 children, between 6 months and 5 years of age, had been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in May alone. UNICEF said the figure represents a nearly 50 percent increase from the 3,444 children admitted in April, and a 150 percent increase from February when a ceasefire was in effect and aid was entering Gaza in significant quantities.

“In just 150 days, from the start of the year until the end of May, 16,736 children – an average of 112 children a day – have been admitted for treatment for malnutrition in the Gaza Strip,” said the agency’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder. “Every one of these cases is preventable. The food, water, and nutrition treatments they desperately need are being blocked from reaching them,” he added. “Man-made decisions that are costing lives. Israel must urgently allow the large-scale delivery of life-saving aid through all border crossings.” (Al Jazeera/Reuters)