Quarter of children and pregnant women screened in Gaza malnourished, says MSF

International humanitarian organisation MSF on Friday has said that a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished, news agency AFP has reported.

MSF blamed Israel's "policy of starvation" for the situation as more than a thousand Palestinians have been shot dead by the Israeli army while attempting to receive aid. 

The medical charity known by its French acronym MSF said that "across screenings of children aged six months to five years old, and pregnant and breastfeeding women at MSF facilities last week, 25 percent were malnourished", warning that "rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks alone".