Another child died of malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza on Saturday, raising the total this week to four amid ongoing Israeli restrictions on aid, the health center's director announced on Saturday.
"We lost a child in the hospital's nursery department in recent hours due to malnutrition," Hossam Abu Safiya said in a news conference held in the northern Gaza Strip.
"This is the fourth child to be killed in the hospital during the last week due to malnutrition," he added.
Abu Safiya said that over the past two weeks, the hospital had diagnosed over 250 children with symptoms of malnutrition, warning that the Gaza Strip "is confronting a genuine health crisis that initially affects children and could extend to adults."
He highlighted that recent premature births at the hospital have been attributed to maternal malnutrition.
"Despite the challenges and despite the targeting of health teams and institutions by the occupation, we remain steadfast in our support for our people, particularly amidst the spread of infections and epidemics, and the looming threat of famine and death in northern Gaza," he noted.
Abu Safiya urged international organizations to bolster relief efforts in northern Gaza, including facilitating the entry of food, clean water, fuel, and essential equipment for waste removal.
He emphasized that Kamal Adwan Hospital only has enough fuel to last it a day and would cease operations if more is not provided soon.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
More than 37,500 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,900 others injured, according to local health authorities.
More than eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
