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Palestinian health experts studying the impact of the Zionist regime's blockade of the Gaza Strip say it threatens to cause long-term damage to Palestinians' health, with many children at risk of stunted growth or malnutrition, Reuters reported.
In a series of studies published in the Lancet medical journal on Friday, researchers also said Israel's attack on the region in early 2009 had a devastating effect, causing injury, displacement and social suffering, particularly among children.
Stress levels are also high, with women describing the terror of giving birth under siege.
According to Reuters report, around 1,4OO people were estimated to have killed and many more injured during the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip between December 2008 and January 2009.
The health experts described the destruction of infrastructure, including homes, as "unprecedented".
In a study looking at some of the health consequences of the attack itself and the siege of Gaza a medical team analyzed health-related quality of life using data from a random survey of about 3,000 Palestinian households.
Almost a third of the sample population was displaced during the war, while 39 percent of their homes were either completely or partly destroyed. By the end of the study in August 2009, three quarters of the damaged homes had yet to be repaired.
The study also found that more than 70 percent of households were reliant on food aid, and 57 percent of respondents whose families received food aid rated quality of life as "less than good" compared with 30 percent of respondents who did not.
A second study looking at childbirth under siege interviewed five midwives and 11 women about their experiences during the bombings. They described how they coped with fear, violence and uncertainty around them as they waited for labour to begin.
One woman quoted in the study said the worst time was when darkness fell: "I was not thinking like other people in face of death or shelling, but was only thinking of my case. What would happen if I had labour pains at night? How will I manage? They were shelling even ambulances. Nights were like nightmares. Each morning I breathed a sigh of relief that daylight had appeared."
Kholoud Nasser from the Ministry of Education in Ramallah, looked at Palestinian children's diets and the knock-on effects for their health and education.
In a study of around 2,000 children and adolescents, she found that many children miss breakfast -- the main indicator of healthy eating habits -- while many are anemic or stunted.