DaysofPal – Doctors across Gaza say they are powerless to stop children from dying of starvation, as Israel’s siege and bombardment push the Strip into a man-made famine.
Seven-year-old May Abu Arar is among the children wasting away in Gaza City. For four months, her mother, Nadia, has watched her daughter’s body shrink from 19 kilograms to a frail frame that now has to be fed through a syringe.
“Every sip is painful,” Nadia said. “The doctors told me she has no illness, no condition; it is only malnutrition. Every day she is getting worse, and there is no improvement.”
Medical staff say such cases are multiplying as food disappears and hospitals lack even basic nutritional supplements. Dr. Munir al-Barsh, Director General of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, confirmed that famine has reached Stage 5, the most severe level, and is spreading southwards.
He reported 289 deaths from starvation, including 115 children, with over one million people already in a state of emergency hunger. More than 41,000 children are suffering from severe malnutrition.
At Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, doctors are treating patients who are not only malnourished but also unable to recover from wounds due to lack of nutrients. Karam Aqoma, 32, lost more than half his body weight after being shot while trying to collect flour. His father said his son’s weight fell from 62 kilograms to 35 kilograms because no hospital in Gaza has the intravenous supplements he needs.
“The absence of protein is catastrophic,” said Dr. Mohammed Kahil, head of al-Shifa’s nutrition department. “There is no meat, no chicken, no dairy, not even fruit. People survive only on legumes, and even those are scarce.”
Displaced families, like that of Dalia Shamali from Shuja’iyya, describe surviving on a single meal a day. Flour has become unaffordable, while queues for aid are met with violence as Israeli attacks intensify around Gaza City.
A recent report by the US-based medical NGO MedGlobal found that one in six children under the age of five in Gaza suffers from acute malnutrition.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell described seeing infants too weak to cry, children with skeletal bodies, and parents arriving at clinics with nothing left to feed their families.
“Without an immediate ceasefire and full humanitarian access, famine will spread, and more children will die,” Russell warned.
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