10.8.02

A RECENTLY released USAID funded nutritional assessment indicates that acute and chronic malnutrition rates of Palestinian children under 5 have reached emergency levels, with 22.5 per cent of children suffering moderate or severe acute or chronic malnutrition and 1/5 suffering moderate and/or severe anaemia. The study, designed by Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health, surveyed nutrition levels, availability of food in the market and household consumption, and found that the factors affecting the dangerous rise in malnutrition directly relates to Israeli-imposed movement restrictions and the dismal economic situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.