On August 6th Chris Gunness said the following in an ominous tweet: "What a truly tragic reflection! Where else on earth is infant mortality rising? I bet not in blockaded places like #Gaza."
And he has a press release to go with it: "Infant Mortality Rate Rises in Gaza for First Time in Fifty Years... The infant mortality rate in Gaza has risen for the first time in five decades, according to an UNRWA study, and UNRWA's Health Director says the blockade may be contributing to the trend."...
The bigger picture is that since 1960 and all through the period of 'brutal Israeli occupation' the infant mortality rates plummeted: far fewer babies die now than ever. Israel built some of the first and finest hospitals ever built to serve these populations: Jordan and Egypt barely did anything except leave their Arab brothers living in squalor. The Arab populations in Israel and the disputed territories including those handed back to full control by Palestinians like Gaza, have the lowest infant mortality rates of any general Arab populations in the entire region.
There are numerous other problems that go on in Gaza (and even within Israel's Arab populations) but to blame the 'blockade' in the first sentence and then wrap that ridiculous and unproven claim up in a scientific veneer is just typical of how UNRWA operates. For example, 19 of the 65 deaths talked about in the paper were 'congenital anomalies': this is often associated with poor genetic diversity: marrying first cousins is known to be a big problem in this society. It's hard to see how a blockade is causing that...
Anti-Israel NGOs feeding worthless science to gullible, lethal journalists. A crackerjack combination for whipping up Jew hatred around the world!