At least 66 children in Gaza have died from malnutrition since Israel launched a war and blockade on the territory over 20 months ago, local authorities say.
Doctors describe newborns wasting away for lack of formula and medical nutrition while families scavenge for any type of milk – none of it suitable for infants.
At the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Dr Ahmad al-Fara, neonatal department head, moves between incubators trying to keep babies alive with dwindling supplies. “These children are facing slow death,” he told NBC News.
Gaza’s director of field hospitals, Dr Marwan al-Hams, confirmed that healthcare facilities no longer had type 1 or 2 formula or the specialised nutrition required in incubators. “The malnutrition of pregnant or breastfeeding mothers exacerbates the situation,” he said, adding that rising cases of child malnutrition were now visible across the besieged Palestinian territory.
More than 16,700 children aged six months to five years have been treated for acute malnutrition this year, an average of 112 every day, Unicef regional director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder told Al Jazeera.
May alone saw 5,119 such admissions, a 150 per cent rise from February when aid was still entering the territory during a brief ceasefire. “Every one of the cases is preventable,” Mr Beigbeder said. “The food, water and nutrition treatments they desperately need are being blocked from reaching them.”
The UN children’s agency warns the situation will worsen unless restrictions are lifted.
Israel ended the ceasefire in March by launching a wave of strikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians and imposed a total blockade of the territory, completely halting the entry of food, aid and fuel. The 11-week blockade was partially eased last month.
But even as some UN agencies are allowed to deliver small quantities of aid, the humanitarian crisis continues to deepen in Gaza. According to the health ministry, Israeli forces have killed more than 500 people trying to get food, including at distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial group backed by the US and Israel at the expense of reputable charities, NBC News reported.
Israeli soldiers told local newspaper Haaretz that the army deliberately fired at unarmed Palestinians waiting for aid.
The Israeli military claimed it was investigating the report while the GHF called for a full inquiry.
Doctors Without Borders condemned the current aid distribution as “a slaughterhouse masquerading as humanitarian aid” and called for the system to be dismantled.
UN secretary general António Guterres labelled the GHF operations “inherently unsafe” and accused the Israeli military of creating “a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions”. He also called for the UN’s own aid system to be restored.
Meanwhile, the Gaza government media office accused Israel of deliberately using starvation as a weapon against civilians, particularly children, and called it a war crime. The statement also criticised the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany for complicity through their continued support of Israel’s campaign.
According to Dr al-Hams, 144 children died in neonatal care between January and May this year, 206 foetuses were lost in utero, 18 newborns died immediately after birth, and 58 babies were born with defects, the New Arab reported. The same period saw over 2,100 miscarriages, a direct result he said of malnutrition affecting over half of all pregnant women in Gaza.
The WHO says the collapse of Gaza’s medical infrastructure – damaged by unrelenting Israeli attacks and cut off from basic supplies – has left remaining hospitals operating with only 55 per cent of their required medicines and no strategic reserves.
Dr Aziz Rahman, an American volunteer intensive care specialist at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told NBC News: “There are 600,000 kids under five in Gaza who are malnourished and we are seeing the worst of the worst. Can we feed these babies? The answer is simple: allow aid to come in. The solution is easy. The problem is manmade.”
