The skin is pulled so closely on the tiny bodies of Emaciated babies In Gaza that they seem both with a newborn and at the old one at the same time.
Doctors dealing with the daily influx of children suffering from malnutrition – hungry under The total blockade of Israel on aid – Let's say that some are so undernourished that they started to lose their sight.
“The majority of cases are between a month and two years,” said Dr. Raed al-Baba, gastroenterologist and nutritionist at Al-Awda in the North Hospital in the North Gaza. It helps treat around 100 children brought daily, mainly because of hunger.
“Many children are stunted, suffering from severe diarrhea and anemia … This leads to ricottes, tilted knees and even inability to move. They cannot see things or clearly due to malnutrition, ”he adds.
“I hope that our voices will reach the world … because our children cannot support any guilt in this war.”
Five -year -old oussama reveals serious signs of malnutrition and worsening of cystic fibrosis due to a lack of food and treatment (including enzymatic tablets to help him digest) in Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis on May 5 (AP)
Israel imposed a complete ban on assisting Gaza seizure three months ago, with his senior officials accusing the Hamas A militant group for the use of aid to “feed your war machine”, stealing goods and taking advantage of them – something that activists deny.
The devastating move has led to famine conditions for the two million people who live there, and at least 9,000 children have been admitted for the treatment of acute malnutrition since the beginning of the year, according to the non -Children's Agency's Agency Unicef.
THE Hamas-government in government in Gaza Said that 3,500 of them are now at the door of death. On Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said Gaza “a famine zone” and called on the entire United Nations system to immediately activate its mechanisms.
The crisis had a particularly devastating impact on infants and breastfeeding and pregnant mothers. According to OCHA, the United Nations Humanitarian Bureau, 92% of infants aged 6 to 23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers do not meet their nutrient needs.
Amnesty International condemned him as “genocide in action”, describing him as part of a “policy of deliberately imposing imposing living conditions on the Palestinians on Gaza calculated to cause their physical destruction”.
THE World Food Program said last month that he was short of all food stocks in Gaza And the 25 bakeries supported by PAM had to close. Local volunteers have said The independent They had less than a week of supplies to deliver.
Wedad Abdelaal and his 9 month old son Khaled, who suffers from malnutrition. His other children, Ahmed (7) and Maria (4), both show signs of malnutrition in a camp for the Palestinians moved to Khan Younis, May 2, 2025 (AP)
In Gaza, families have described how food prices in some cases have increased tenfold – if the goods are available. A 25 kg of rotten flour bag costs just over £ 220, a kilo of rice is £ 8 and the meat is completely unavailable.
As despair has settled, it also triggered violent looting, The humanitarian workers describing armed people trying to grasp the last remains available.
There are chalks that the situation will only degenerate, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced intentions to start an expanded “intensive” offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli troops have already taken control of approximately a third of the 42 km long enclave, moving the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on released land that the military has designated as “security zones”. However, the new plan – which follows weeks of ceasefire negotiations in neutral with Hamas – would go even further, including the indefinite seizure of parts of the band, the forced displacement of civilians “for their own safety” and the control of aid deliveries.
The Minister of Finance on the far right, Bezalel Smotrich, warned that with this new plan, “in a few months … Gaza will be completely destroyed”.
Speaking at a conference for colonies in occupied West Bank – which are deemed illegal under international law – he added that the Gaza population will be covered in a small area south of Gaza.
“The rest of the band will be empty,” he added, according to Time Israel.
“The citizens of Gazan will be concentrated in the South. They will be completely desperate, will understand that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will look for a relocation to start a new life in other places. ”
The independent stretched out the Israeli army, which refused to comment and comment Benjamin NetanyahuThe office, but has not yet received an answer.
But current operations within Gaza and the development plan have even worried the Israeli security establishment, with The authorities said on a daily left left Haaretz The fact that the 59 hostages remaining in Gaza – also under the blockade – could be abandoned and die of famine in a few days if the Gaza offensive develops.
Rahma Al-Qadi cares about her 7-month-old daughter, Sama, who was born with Down syndrome and suffers from malnutrition, at the Malnutrition Clinic at Nasser Hospital, May 1 (AP)
He deeply alarmed the international community. Six American senators, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Peter Welch, asked the Congress surveillance agency to investigate whether the restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries by Israel and other foreign governments are in violation of American law, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
In Gaza, families described how they had to live one meal a day.
“The bread has become one thing in the past,” said Najia Abu al-Rus, a 33-year-old mother, moved five times in the southern city of Rafah, who is reduced to feeding her children, rice, salt and water. She describes how her diabetic father frequently slips into comas due to lack of food – and how they cook on burning plastic fires and old clothes.
“Children feel dizzy and skin diseases have spread due to the presence of insects.
“We don't want anything from the world except to stop the genocide. We don't want anything else, ”she adds.
Mustafa al-Duhdar, 30, a volunteer rescue worker, describes the situation in Gaza as “terrifying in every sense of the word”.
Palestinians find it difficult to donate food in community cuisine in Khan Younis on May 5 (AP)
He says that the cuisine where he works to implement food initiatives was attacked by armed gangs, which tried to take over and were finally pushed by the staff.
“There may have been hungry people who have taken the premises by hunger and extreme despair, looking for food to satisfy their hunger,” he said, begging for a single “piece of food to satisfy hunger, a sip of clean water, a safe shelter”.
“Even if you can't stop the massacre, don't be an accomplice of silence. Our message to the world: we do not ask for luxury. We ask for survival.
“We need the world to feel, hear the cry of a hungry child and see the tears of a mourning mother. We need life. “
The war began after activists led by Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and removing 251. Israel said that 59 captives remain in Gaza, of which about 35 are considered dead.
The offensive that followed by Israel killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, including many women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.
