Gaza children are dying of hunger
‘The child deaths we feared are here,’ official says
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — It’s not just Israeli bombs that have killed children in war-ravaged Gaza — now some are dying of hunger.
Officials have been warning for months that Israel’s siege and offensive were pushing the Palestinian territory into famine.
Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces and has suffered long cutoffs of food supplies. At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration at the north’s Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals, according to the Health Ministry. Most of the dead are children — including ones as old as 15 — as well as a 72-year-old man.
Particularly vulnerable children are also beginning to succumb in the south, where access to aid is more regular.
At the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, 16 premature babies have died of malnutrition-related causes over the past five weeks, one of the senior doctors said.
“The child deaths we feared are here,” Adele Khodr,
UNICEF’s Middle East chief, said in a statement earlier this week.
Israel’s bombardment and ground assaults have already wreaked a high toll among children, who along with women make up nearly three-quarters of the more than 30,800 Palestinians killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Malnutrition is generally slow to bring death, striking children and the elderly first. Other factors can play a role. Underfed mothers have difficulty breastfeeding children. Diarrheal diseases, rampant in Gaza due to lack of clean water and sanitation, leave many unable to retain any of the calories they ingest, said Anuradha Narayan, a UNICEF child nutrition expert. Malnutrition weakens immune systems, sometimes leading to death from other diseases.
Conditions in the north, largely under Israeli control for months, have become desperate. Most people eat a weed that crops up in empty lots, known as “khubaiza.” Fatima Shaheen, a 70-yearold who lives with her two sons and their children in northern Gaza, said boiled khubaiza is her main meal, and her family has also ground up food meant for rabbits to use as flour.
“We are dying for a piece of bread,” Shaheen said.
Israel largely shut off entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies after launching its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and took around 250 hostage. It has allowed only a trickle of aid trucks through two crossings in the south.
Israel has blamed the burgeoning hunger in Gaza on U.N. agencies, saying they fail to distribute supplies piling up at Gaza crossings. UNRWA, the largest U.N. agency in Gaza, says Israel restricts some goods and imposes cumbersome inspections that slow entry.
Also, distribution within Gaza has been crippled, U.N. officials say convoys are regularly turned back by Israeli forces, the military often refuses safe passage amid fighting, and aid is snatched off trucks by hungry Palestinians on route to drop-off points.
With alarm growing, Israel bent to U.S. and international pressure, saying this week it will open crossings for aid directly into northern Gaza and allow sea shipments.