Gaza is plunging into a man-made drought as its water infrastructure crumbles, leaving children at risk of dying from thirst, the United Nations children’s agency warned Friday.
“Children will begin to die of thirst ... only 40% of drinking water production facilities are still operating,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva. “We are well below emergency standards for safe drinking water in Gaza.”
UNICEF also reported a 50% rise in cases of malnutrition among children aged 6 months to 5 years from April to May, along with 500,000 people facing hunger.
The agency further criticized the U.S.-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying it is “making a desperate situation worse.”
On Friday, at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in the central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities.
On Thursday, at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in central Gaza.
Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he received many testimonials from women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries.
He said a lack of public clarity about when aid sites – some of which are in combat zones – were open was causing mass casualty events.
“There have been instances where information was shared that a site is open, but then it’s communicated on social media that they’re closed, but that information was shared when Gaza’s internet was down and people had no access to it,” he said.
On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed 3 million meals across three of its aid sites without incident.
On Friday, at least 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir al-Balah, taking the day’s death toll to 37.
