HAMILTON, Canada

The UN on Thursday reported that more than 60,000 children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from malnutrition as the humanitarian situation in the region deteriorates rapidly.

Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Farhan Haq stressed "the urgency of reopening the crossings to allow critical supplies to enter."

"More than 60,000 children are reportedly suffering from malnutrition, at a time when community kitchens are rapidly running out of fuel and supplies," he said at a news conference.

Warning about the "rapid" shortage in water supplies for displaced people, Haq said: "The loss of water, together with the lack of cleaning supplies and cohabitation with livestock, are having a dire public health impact."

"In March, more than one-third of households in Gaza experienced lice infestations," he added.

Asked if the deliberate killing of unarmed emergency workers could be considered a war crime, Haq confirmed that it would meet the criteria, but refrained from making a definitive statement while investigations are ongoing.

"It's very clear that attacks on humanitarian workers are significant violations of international humanitarian law, and we made clear the need for there to be accountability in this case," he said.

Video released last week by The New York Times exposed a deliberate lie by the Israeli army regarding the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics in southern Gaza on March 23.

The video was grabbed from the phone of a paramedic whose body was found buried in a mass grave.

It exposed the army's initial claim that the vehicles were advancing "suspiciously" from its forces "without headlights, or emergency signals, (and) their movement was not coordinated in advance."

The Palestine Red Crescent Society had announced the discovery of 14 bodies following the Israeli attack. The victims included eight Red Crescent workers, five Civil Defense personnel and a UN agency staff member.

It came days after the Palestinian Civil Defense said it recovered the body of a team member killed by Israel, bringing the number of deaths from the attack to 15.

More than 50,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in Israel's military onslaught since October 2023.