According to doctors on the ground, the World Health Organisation has stated that newborn mortality is dramatically climbing in the Gaza Strip and that underweight newborns are being born there, as reported by AFP.
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris stated during a briefing in Geneva, “From different doctors, particularly in the maternity hospitals, they’re reporting that they’re seeing a big rise in children born with low birth weight, and just not surviving the neonatal period because they’re born too small.”
According to her, “at least 15 malnourished children are coming in per day, and the needs are just getting ever more severe” at Kamal Adwan, the only paediatric hospital in northern Gaza.
The destruction in the Palestinian area prevents the WHO from establishing accurate figures on infant mortality.