DaysofPal- Aid organizations are raising renewed alarm over Israel’s ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, where for more than six weeks, the entry of food and other humanitarian goods has been completely barred. The result: thousands of children suffering from malnutrition, as the population teeters on the brink of famine.
According to the United Nations, most people in Gaza are surviving on just one meal a day as food stocks continue to dwindle. “The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is facing total collapse,” warned the heads of 12 independent humanitarian organizations in a joint statement. Many of their operations have been forced to shut down in recent weeks due to the intensifying Israeli bombardment, which has made it too dangerous to deliver aid.
The U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) reported that almost all of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents now rely on charity kitchens, many of which are barely functioning. With food distribution programs shut down due to lack of supplies, remaining aid is being funneled to these overwhelmed kitchens. The international community warns that the entire food system is on the verge of collapse.
Children Dying of Hunger
Outside Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, the human impact of the food crisis is devastating. Al Jazeera interviewed Fadi Ahmed, a father mourning the death of his young son who was suffering from severe malnutrition.
The child was admitted to the hospital with “massive infections in the lungs, which led to a severe lack of oxygen in his blood,” Fadi said. “The boy’s weakness and severe malnutrition led to his inability to resist, and then to his death… after spending one week at the hospital.”
Another heart-wrenching story came from Intisar Hamdan, who held her deceased grandson in her arms outside the same hospital. She said her son had searched desperately for baby milk for three days but found none. With no access to treatment, the child died.
Children in Gaza are not only starving, they are developing serious medical complications that can no longer be treated due to a collapse of the healthcare system and a severe shortage of medicine and equipment.
According to OCHA, March saw a sharp rise in child malnutrition cases, with more than 3,600 children newly admitted for acute malnutrition treatment, up from 2,000 in February. “The rapid deterioration of the nutrition situation is already visible,” the agency reported.
Yet, the ability to treat malnourished children is rapidly vanishing. The number of children under five receiving nutrition supplements dropped by 70% in just one month, from February to March, reaching only 22,300 children. Aid workers had aimed to reach at least 29,000.
Only around 100 of the original 173 treatment sites are still functioning, as airstrikes and ground attacks continue to damage infrastructure and put aid workers’ lives at risk.
Aid Workers: “We Are Being Forced to Watch People Die”
“Humanitarians have been forced to watch people suffer and die while carrying the impossible burden of providing relief with depleted supplies, all while facing the same life-threatening conditions themselves,” said Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza.
“This is not a humanitarian failure; it is a political choice and a deliberate assault on a people’s ability to survive, carried out with impunity,” she said in a powerful statement.
Since resuming the war on March 18, Israel has largely ceased coordination with humanitarian groups. The military agency responsible for such coordination, COGAT, acknowledged that the system in place before the ceasefire had been stopped, leaving aid workers without any safety assurances.
As malnourished children continue to die and humanitarian systems collapse, aid groups stress that this is not simply a byproduct of war — it is a consequence of policy.
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