Hunger is also killing children in Gaza: from premature babies to teenagers

Not only have Israeli bombs killed children in war-torn Gaza; Now some even die of hunger.

The authorities have long warned of the risk of famine in the Palestinian territory, which has lasted less than five months bombings, offensives and sieges from Israel.

Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, isolated by Israeli forces and subject to long cuts in food supplies. According to the Ministry of Health, at least 20 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration in Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals in the north. Most of the victims are children, including some as young as 15, and a 72-year-old man.

Particularly vulnerable children are also beginning to succumb in the South, where access to aid is more regular.

At the Emirates Hospital in Rafah, 16 premature babies have died from malnutrition-related causes in the past five weeks, one of its chief doctors told the Associated Press.

“The child deaths we feared are here,” Adele Khodr, UNICEF Middle East chief, said earlier this week.

Generally, malnutrition takes time to cause death, and primarily affects children and the elderly. There are other factors that can influence. Malnourished mothers do difficulty breastfeeding your children. Diarrheal diseases, which are rampant in Gaza due to the lack of clean water and sanitation, mean this they can’t retain any of the calories they eatexplained Anuradha Narayan, UNICEF child nutrition expert.

Malnutrition weakens the immune system, which sometimes causes death from other diseases.

Israel has largely blocked the entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies after launching its attack on Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 attack in southern Israel, allowing only a trickle of humanitarian aid trucks through two crosses in the south.

Israel blamed for growing famine in Gaza to United Nations agenciessaying that they do not distribute supplies which accumulate at the Gaza crossings. This was stated by UNRWA, the largest United Nations agency in Gaza Israel restricts some goods and imposes burdensome inspections which slow down entry.

Furthermore, according to Israeli forces, distribution within Gaza was paralyzed they regularly turn back convoysthe army often denies safe passage amid fighting and starving Palestinians they steal aid from trucks on the way to the delivery points.

Faced with growing alarm, Israel has bowed to international and American pressure, declaring so this week will open aid passages directly into northern Gaza AND will allow shipments by sea.

Despair in the North

Conditions in the north, largely under Israeli control for months, have become desperate. Entire neighborhoods of Gaza City and surrounding areas they were reduced to rubble by Israeli forces. Anyway, Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain there.

THE meat, milk, vegetables and fruit They are nearly impossible to find, according to several residents who spoke to the AP. The few items in stores are haphazard and sold at hugely inflated prices, especially dried fruit, snacks and spices. People took barrels of chocolate from bakeries and sold them in small portions.

Most people eat a weed that grows in empty lots, known as “khubaiza”. Fatima Shaheen, a 70-year-old woman who lives with her two children and grandchildren in northern Gaza, said khubaiza Boiled meat is his main food, as is his family’s. grind rabbit food to use as flour.

“We are dying for a piece of bread,” Shaheen said.

Qamar Ahmed said his 18-month-old daughter Mira eats mostly boiled herbs. “There is no age-appropriate food,” said Ahmed, a researcher at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and a business journalist. His father, 70, feeds Ahmed’s young son Oleyan. “We tried to convince him to eat and he refuses,” Ahmed said, referring to his father.

Mahmoud Shalaby, who lives in the Jabaliya refugee camp, said he saw a man at the market give a bag of chips to his two children and tell them to make it last for breakfast and lunch. “Everyone knows I lost weight,” said Shalaby, director of the medical aid program for Palestinians in northern Gaza.

Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, acting director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, told the AP that his staff currently serves between 300 and 400 children per day, and that 75% of them suffer from malnutrition.

The recent airdrops of aid from the United States and other countries provide amounts much less help than truck deliveries, which became scarce and sometimes dangerous. UNRWA says Israeli authorities have not allowed it to deliver supplies to the north since January 23.

The World Food Organization, which had suspended deliveries for security reasons, said the army forced its first convoy to the north in two weeks to turn back on Tuesday.

When the Israeli army organized a food delivery in Gaza City last week, The troops guarding the convoy opened fire – due to a perceived threat, according to the army – as thousands of starving Palestinians crowded against the trucks.

About 120 people were killed in the shooting and trampled in the chaos.

Worsening in the south

Yazan al-Kafarna, 10 years old, died Monday after nearly a week of unsuccessful treatment in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. The photos of the child demonstrate this extremely emaciatedwith twig-like limbs and eyes sunken into a wrinkled face to the skull.

Al-Kafarna he was born with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects motor skills and can make swallowing and feeding difficult. Her parents said that since they fled their home in the north of the country, They struggled to find food he could eat, such as berries and eggs.

According to Dr. Jabr al-Shair, head of the pediatric emergency service at Abu Youssef Najjar Hospital, He died due to extreme muscle wasting caused primarily by lack of food.

Recently, around 80 malnourished children crowded the hospital wards. Aya al-Fayoume, a 19-year-old mother displaced in Rafah, brought her 3-month-old daughter, Nisreen, who had lost a lot of weight over the winter months, sick with diarrhea and persistent vomiting. With a diet based

mainly in canned products, al-Fayoume said it doesn’t produce enough breast milk for Nisreen.

“Everything I need is expensive or unavailable,” he says.

Fresh food supplies in Rafah have dwindled, while its population has grown to more than one million displaced people. The only thing there is canned food, which is often found in care packages.

At the Emirates Hospital, Dr. Ahmed al-Shair, deputy director of the nursing unit, said that recent deaths of premature babies They had their origin in the malnutrition of mothers. Both malnutrition and extreme stress are factors in premature and underweight births, and doctors say cases have increased anecdotally during the war, although the UN has no statistics.

Al-Shair explained that premature babies receive treatment for several days to improve their weight. But then they are left at home, which is often an unheated tent, with their mothers too malnourished to breastfeed and milk difficult to obtain. Sometimes parents give newborns only water, which It is often dirty and causes diarrhea.

After a few days, the children “come back in a terrible state. Some had already died,” al-Shair said. He said 14 children in hospital died in February and two more in March.

Currently in the hospital wards there are 44 newborns aged less than 10 days and weighing just 2 kilograms, some with assisted breathing. There are at least three premature babies in each incubator, which increases the risk of infection. Al-Shair said he fears some will suffer the same fate when they return home.

“We treat them now, but only God knows what the future will be like,” he said.

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