Widespread malnutrition in Gaza: Palestinian woman Marah Abu Zuhri dies in Italy; was evacuated on humanitarian flight

A Palestinian woman, who was evacuated from Gaza to Italy for treatment after suffering from extreme malnutrition, has died at a hospital in Pisa, officials said.Marah Abu Zuhri, 20, traveled with her mother to Pisa on an overnight flight on Wednesday as part of an Italian government evacuation programme. The University Hospital of Pisa said she went into cardiac arrest and died on Friday, less than two days after her arrival.She had a “very complex clinical picture” and was “in a profound state of organic wasting,” stated doctors of the hospital, as per the Guardian. The hospital did not provide further details about her condition, but Italian news agencies, citing medical sources, reported that she had been suffering from severe malnutrition.Thirty-one patients and their companions arrived this week in Rome, Milan, and Pisa, many suffering from severe congenital conditions, injuries, or amputations, as per the Italian foreign ministry. Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Italy has evacuated and received more than 180 children and young people from the besieged Gaza Strip.The UN has raised alarms over widespread malnutrition in Gaza, with experts supported by the organisation warning in a report last month that a “worst-case scenario” of famine is already unfolding.The UN World Food Programme reported in July that one-third of Gaza’s population endures days without food, while around half a million people are facing imminent starvation.“The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) last month urging an immediate ceasefire to ease “widespread starvation.”Israel’s defence ministry said that it will start supplying Gaza City residents with tents and other equipment on Sunday ahead of relocating them to designated “safe zones”. The announcement came shortly after the government confirmed plans to occupy Gaza City, followed by days of intense bombardment in Zeitoun, the city’s largest district.The situation in Zeitoun was “catastrophic”, a municipal spokesperson was quoted as saying by the BBC, citing mass displacement after six consecutive days of heavy Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and demolitions.There have been more than 250 instances of hunger-related deaths in the war-ravaged territory since the start of the conflict in October 2023. Eleven people died from malnutrition last week, as per the health ministry. “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month.