Famine Looms in Gaza as Children Starve and Aid Falters

Palestinian children in Rafah wait in line on Feb. 10 among the rubble of destroyed buildings to receive food prepared for Palestinian families displaced to southern Gaza due to Israeli attacks. Photo: Belal Khaled/Anadolu via Getty Images

GAZA — After 21 months of devastating war with Israel, Gaza is on the brink of famine, with aid groups and doctors warning of a mounting hunger crisis that is killing children and overwhelming hospitals across the war-torn enclave.

As reported by the New York Times, 17-year-old Atef Abu Khater, once healthy, now lies in intensive care from severe malnutrition, one of many young victims of what the World Food Program calls “new and astonishing levels of desperation.” A third of Gaza’s population is reportedly going days without food, with hospitals increasingly treating — and losing — patients to starvation.

“There is no one in Gaza now outside the scope of famine, not even myself,” said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, pediatric chief at Nasser Hospital. Even medical staff are scavenging for basic staples like flour, and al-Farra added that the number of children dying of malnutrition has risen sharply in recent days.

Eleven-month-old Siwar Barbaq weighs under nine pounds — less than half the normal weight for her age. Four-month-old Yahia al-Najjar died of starvation in Khan Younis this week, as his mother, herself malnourished, could not produce milk or afford formula.

Gaza’s health ministry reports at least 111 hunger-related deaths since the war began — 81 of them children — though figures remain unverified.

A child faces life-threatening malnutrition in Gaza. Photo: Anadolu/Getty Images

The hunger crisis has deepened since the collapse of a cease-fire in March and Israel’s imposition of a near-total blockade for 80 days. Aid now enters via two chaotic and heavily criticized systems — one U.S.-backed and Israeli-coordinated, the other via international NGOs — both of which have struggled to reach the millions displaced and desperate.

The United Nations blames Israeli restrictions and the lack of secure aid corridors. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid and U.N. agencies of inefficiency.

In response to images of starving children that have been circulating this week, Israel countered with images of pallets and supplies lying uncollected on the Gaza side of a border. They also showed footage "of what the military described as Hamas terrorists enjoying platters of food and fresh food in the group's underground tunnels," the New York Times reported.

Israel declined to say when the video was recorded. 

Meanwhile, starving families search for food among ruins. Mothers like Hedaya al-Mutawaq, widowed and living in a tent, watch helplessly as their children waste away.

Doctors across Gaza warn that childhood malnutrition will leave a generation stunted in body and mind. “Some arrive shivering from hunger,” said Mohammad Saqr of Nasser Medical Complex, where food and medical supplies are vanishing. Even hospital staff are subsisting on spoonfuls of rice.

The crisis has no end in sight. As leaders on both sides engage in stalled cease-fire talks, the youngest Gazans are paying the price — not with politics, but with their lives.

Previously, UOJ reported that the IDF has ruled the recent strike on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza as "unintentional."

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