Tess Ingram, director of communication for UnicefThe Middle East and North African regional office recently spent nine days there, describing it as “a city of fear, theft and funeral”.

“The latest refuge for the northern families of the Gaza Strip is Quickly become a place where childhood cannot survive“She said, speaking of the enclave to New York journalists.

Children fight for survival ‘

Nearly a million people remain in Gaza City, where the collapse of essential services leaves its youngest and most vulnerable residents “fighting for survival” while famine spreads and helps barely.

Only 44 of the ambulatory nutrition treatment centers supported by UNICEF are always functional, which means that thousands of children suffering from malnutrition do not have access to these critical rescue lines.

Meanwhile, hospitals “are on their knees”. Only 11 still partially operate and only five have neonatal intensive care units, or USI.

“The 40 incubators between them operate up to 200%, which means that there are as much as 80 babies fighting for life in overcrowded machinesCompletely dependent on generators and medical supplies that can be dry at any time, “she said.

“Small bodies shredded by bursts of shells”

In Gaza City, Ms. Ingram has again met families who have been on the run, children who have been separated from their parents and mothers whose children died of hunger or who fear that their offspring be the next one.

“I spoke to children in hospital beds, their little bodies shredded by bursts of buses,” she said. “” The unthinkable is not looming. He’s already there. The climbing is underway. “”

Famine is “everywhere” in the city of Gaza

Famine was “wherever I looked in in the city of Gaza,” she said. “An hour in a nutritional clinic is enough to erase any question to find out if there is a famine,” she added.

In these clinics, waiting rooms are filled with parents in tears, “children fighting the double punch of disease and malnutrition”, mothers unable to breastfeed and “babies losing their vision, their hair and their strength to walk”.

As elsewhere in the enclave, whole families survive a bowl of lenses or rice per day of community kitchens. Parents often get along so that their children can have something to eat.

A sad meeting

Last week, Ms. Ingram visited a stabilization center that treats children Mal Nourris and was shocked to find a woman called Nesma and her daughter, Jana.

UNICEF had evacuated the girl for treatment in the south of Gaza over a year ago and she recovered. Jana and her mother then returned to Northern Gaza during the ceasefire earlier this year to find the rest of their family

“Then, the blockade on aid, hunger returned, and this time the two children of Nesma deteriorated.” Her two -year -old daughter Jouri died of malnutrition last month and Jana “is barely hung”.

‘More children die of hunger’

Ingram said that children like Jana “returned to emergency services or relapse just a few weeks after completing the treatment of malnutrition due to the lack of food, safe water and other essential supplies” in the Gaza Strip.

She said that “without immediate access and increased to food and nutritional treatments, this recurring nightmare will deepen and more children are dying of hunger – a spell that is entirely avoidable.”

UNICEF continues to respond to the crisis and, in the past two weeks, has provided partners in the field with enough therapeutic food ready to use to support more than 3,000 children of acute malnutrition during the six -week treatment.

The agency has also provided additional foods to support more than 1,400 infants as well as high -energy cookies for more than 4,600 pregnant and breastfed women, among other people such as drinking water and the construction of temporary learning centers.

“Our team does everything in their power to help children, but we could do much more, reaching each child here, if our field operations were activated on a large scale and we were well funded,” she said.

Malnutrition numbers increase

UNICEF is looking for $ 716 million this year for its response to Gaza, where needs are immense and infantile malnutrition continues to increase. In February, just over 2,000 young people were admitted for treatment. In July, the number increased to 13,000 and in mid-August had already reached 7,200.

The agency continues to call Israel to review its commitment rules to ensure that children are protected and that Hamas and other armed groups disclose all remaining hostages, said Ms. Ingram.

She highlighted the need for Israel to allow sufficient help to enter, while humanitors must be able to reach families in complete safety where they are.

His final advocacy was for the international community, in particular the influenced states and stakeholders, to use their lever effect to end the war now: “Because the cost of inaction will be measured in the life of children buried in the rubble, wasted by hunger and silence before even having the chance to speak.”

“” Air quality does not comply“Said Lorenzo Labrador, scientific officer for the World Meteorological Organization (Wmo). “Smoke and pollution according to which the emissions of forest fires in this record season of the Iberian peninsula have already been detected above Western Europe [and]… Can travel mainly in the rest of the European continent. »»

Presentation of the last WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin Who cracks data from different global data sets, Mr. Labrador has announced a continuous model of “degradation” of pollution in the world.

He underlined a world map in 2024 showing markers of fine revealing particles known as “PM 2.5” from forest fires concentrated in deep red spots in Chile, Brazil and Ecuador, as well as Canada, Central Africa and Siberia.

The data confirm a disturbing trend in the loss of air quality already noted in previous years.

“We know that the forest fire season tends to be stronger and longer each year, due to climate change,” said Labrador.

China, Europe gives hope

In more positive news, the OMO scientist underlined a reduction in emissions in certain parts of the world, “in particular East China and Europe, annual».

“” When we see that countries, regions or cities take measures to combat poor air quality, it works“Said Paolo Laj, world atmosphere in WMO.

A good example is East of China, in cities like Shanghai, where progress has been made to increase air quality by opening more parks and planting more trees.

And although there is still heavy vehicle circulation, many are now electric, noted Clare Nullis, OMM spokesperson.

Despite these successes, very few cities in the world have air quality levels below those recommended by the United Nations World Organization (WHO), underlined Mr. Laj de WMO. “” This means that, despite recent improvements, air quality remains an important public health problem. “”

He explained that although the main pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxide (NOₓ) decrease as emissions come into play, ozone levels at ground level – the main ingredient of SMOG – have not decreased.

“This is partly a consequence of global warming, because ozone is a secondary pollutant formed by chemical reactions in the atmosphere that require sunlight,” continued Mr. Laj.

Covering forest fires, winter fog, shipping emissions and pollution in urban areas, WMO air quality bulletin highlights the close connection between air quality and climate change.

“Climate change and air quality cannot be discussed in isolation. They go hand in hand and must be discussed together to protect the health of our planet, our communities and our economies, “said OMM’s deputy secretary general Ko Barrett.

The UN strives to combat household air pollution which is one of the largest public health threats in the world and particularly harmful to children.

“The good news is that the cleaner cooking technology is abundant, relatively inexpensive and already helps to save lives,” insisted Martina Otto, chief of the climate and clean air coalition secretariat organized by the United Nations Environment Program (Dive).

“” The challenge is now to put this technology in the hands of more people. “”