06/07/2025June 7, 2025
UNICEF decries humanitarian situation in Gaza, says aid being used as ‘bait’
Humanitarian groups say the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza has nearly tripled — compared to the , when aid flowed more freely.
DW spoke with James Elder of about the current humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Elder, who has just returned from Gaza, said the youngest children in the Palestinian territory are facing a “man-made nutritional crisis.”
“I’m seeing malnourished children who will not be alive next week,” he said of those being treated in still functioning hospitals.
There is a lack of basic medical supplies, including painkillers, he said.
“The sheer weight of injured children is the same; it’s been consistent, but the lack of painkillers is something you don’t just see, but you hear… these blood-curdling screams,” he said.
Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2, claiming it was to pressure Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by many Western governments and Israel, to release hostages still being held by the militants. Israeli officials said that Hamas was stealing aid and using it to supply its own fighters, without providing evidence to support this claim. This blockade was only partially eased two weeks ago.
“Now we have three or four distribution points run by military contractors, where children are being killed as they try to access this aid; it’s not aid; it’s food being dumped,” Elder said.
Elder pointed out that during a brief ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the UN and other agencies were able to send hundreds of trucks into Gaza on a daily basis, and there was no large-scale looting.
However he added, “when you deprive an entire population of food and then you allow the United Nations a few trucks down only one route, creating the circumstances for looting, it’ll happen and it’s being stolen by everyday people because they are absolutely desperate.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a , began operating last week but has halted operations following days of in which scores of Palestinians were killed.
It circumvents United Nations aid agencies and other initiatives, and it has been accused of endangering civilians in the process.
“What’s been happening now is that the circumstances have been created for looting so as to sideline a system a humanitarian system that’s worked since World War Two in scores of countries around the world,” Elder said.
“You can’t ask grandmothers and sick people and amputees and children to walk 20 kilometers |12.4 miles], you cannot use aid as bait, that’s what’s being done right now,” he added.
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