DaysofPal- Four-month-old Yousef al-Najjar lies motionless in a Gaza hospital bed, his tiny frame barely more than skin and bone. Weighing just over 1.5 kilograms—far below the average for his age—Yousef’s body has been ravaged by disease and malnutrition, his frail heartbeat the only sign that life still lingers.
His mother, 30-year-old Najia al-Najjar, watches helplessly as her son withers away in front of her eyes. “I’m unable to breastfeed him because of malnutrition,” she says. “He doesn’t tolerate any formula, and the special milk prescribed by doctors is simply unavailable.”
Najia’s pregnancy was complicated by severe poverty, repeated displacement, and an acute lack of food and medical care—conditions now tragically common in Gaza under Israeli months-long blockade. “Before the war, my husband worked as a blacksmith. We had a home and were living a decent life,” she told Filastin newspaper. “Now he’s unemployed, our house is in ruins, and we’re barely surviving.”
Najia was forced to give birth prematurely at seven months after doctors failed to stop early labor. Yousef was delivered by emergency cesarean section and suffered oxygen deprivation at birth. He spent a month in an incubator, during which time his mother struggled to find even basic clothing or baby supplies. Since then, Yousef’s life has been a constant cycle of hospital admissions and desperate searches for medicine and nutrition.
Doctors prescribed a therapeutic formula essential for Yousef’s survival, but the product is no longer available in local markets due to the Israeli blockade. “I was only able to buy one box, and even that I had to borrow money for,” Najia says. “Now I can’t find anymore, and even if I could, I can’t afford it.”
The family’s situation deteriorated further after their flour ran out. “Sometimes I spend the night in the hospital with no food or water,” she adds, her voice hollow with exhaustion.
On Sunday, a photo of Najia holding her skeletal son went viral on social media, mistakenly believed by many to show a child who had died from hunger. “I had just gone home to check on my other children when I saw the news,” she recalls. “I ran back to the hospital on foot. I wasn’t relieved until I saw him breathing.”
Yousef remains on intravenous fluids. Doctors say his condition is critical and warn that he may not survive unless he receives proper nutrition soon.
His story has come to symbolize the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where aid is scarce, health systems are overwhelmed, and parents are forced to watch their children starve.
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