Children starve to death as Gaza ceasefire stalls

Families reportedly eating leaves and animal food to stay alive as WHO makes first visit to enclave’s north

CHILDREN have starved to death in the besieged Gaza Strip, where people are eating leaves and animal food in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

Life-saving aid to the enclave is being delayed by stalled ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Thousands of families are struggling to find food. Ten children died at Kamal Adwan hospital in north Gaza, it was confirmed by the UN for the first time yesterday.

Yazan Al Kafarneh, 10, was filmed by local journalists at the hospital a few days before his death, looking emaciated and barely able to speak.

Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas, later said that 15 children had already died from malnutrition and dehydration at the hospital.

Diala Abu Sultan is six months old and is displaying severe signs of malnutrition and skeletal fragility.

In recent weeks, her parents have been unable to find or afford milk so they have been giving Diala water which is likely contaminated.

“I cannot bear to see my child crying day and night due to extreme hunger and colic,” her mother, Diana, told The

Telegraph yesterday.

“Her bones have become visible, and she refuses to eat anything.”

Doctors said the infant needs vitamins, nutrients and prescription medication, but none of it can be found.

Much of the aid waiting to get to Gaza is dependent on a ceasefire being negotiated between Israel and Hamas.

However, Israel is refusing to hold negotiations until the terrorist group reveals how many of the hostages it took in the Oct 7 attacks are still alive. Hamas claims it does not know the location and condition of all captives, thought to number more than 100. In the meantime, aid trucks that do manage to get into Gaza have been looted by desperate people, leaving children such as Diala empty-handed while Israel continues to bombard the region.

“I feel a heavy burden of guilt for bringing her into such a cruel world. What fault lies with my innocent little girl, suffering from starvation? All she needs is milk,” said Diana, who gave birth just before the start of the war.

Muhammad, the girl’s 40-year-old father, is a driver but he has not been able to get any work since the start of the war. The couple, who have six children, soon ran out of provisions and money. With no food aid available, prices at the market are beyond what they can afford.

Like thousands of people in Gaza, they subsisted for weeks on animal food but even that is now running out.

“We’ve even turned to eating plant leaves to stave off hunger, but Diala, being so young, cannot digest such sustenance,” Muhammad said.

“All I beg from this world is milk to save my daughter’s life. The thought of losing her is unbearable. I cannot fathom losing my daughter, Diala, to hunger.”

World Health Organization (WHO) officials found “children dying of starvation” in both Kamal Adwan and al-awda hospitals.