With bodies as thin as skeletons, children Mohammed, Razan, and Amal lie in hospitals in the Gaza Strip, exhausted by diseases resulting from hunger and severe malnutrition, as a result of the genocidal war waged by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians for 21 months.
On the treatment beds, the three children’s childhoods disappeared from their faces. They show no response to play or interaction, and spend most of their time in a state of complete inactivity, as a result of severe emaciation and malnutrition .
Amid this spectacle of Israeli genocide, the wailing of sick children exhausted by hunger rises, while doctors struggle to provide minimal care amid a severe shortage of resources.
While warnings mount from within the Gaza Strip about the collapse of the health system, famine is silently spreading among thousands of children struggling to survive in the face of systematic starvation practiced by the Israeli occupation.
Despite deteriorating health conditions and mounting warnings of famine, Israel, the occupying power, continues to prevent the entry of food and water into Gaza, ignoring repeated international calls to open the crossings to humanitarian aid .
On Friday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that approximately 112 Palestinian children have been admitted to hospitals in the Gaza Strip every day to receive treatment for malnutrition since the beginning of the year, due to the stifling Israeli blockade .
Medical sources announced that the number of children who have died from severe malnutrition has risen to 66 since October 7 , 2023, as a result of the Israeli occupation’s tightening of its siege on the Gaza Strip, using “starvation as a weapon to exterminate civilians”.
In Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, a helpless mother stands in front of her 3-month-old infant, Mohammed al-Louh, unable to provide him with the milk he so desperately needs.
From his first moments in life, the child knew nothing but hunger and siege. He was born in the heart of famine, and he never saw a beautiful day like other children in the world.
During the three months since his birth, the child and his family have been displaced and deprived, without enjoying a single day of safety. His childhood was stolen early in the midst of a merciless war that leaves him no right to cry as children around the world do in their early years.
His mother told Anadolu Agency: “My child suffers from malnutrition and chest infections due to the lack of milk. The hospitals do not have it, and the crossings are closed due to the blockade . ”
The situation is not much different for Razan Abu Zaher’s mother, who sits beside her sick little girl, hoping that she will recover .
The mother says, Razan suffers from a constant fever and general weakness, and her condition gets worse every day due to the lack of food and water .
She added that her daughter was deprived of nutritious milk and ready-made wheat cereals, “Cerelac,” which exacerbated the deterioration of her health .
As for Amal, she lies in the children’s ward at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, with a emaciated body from which her breast bones are clearly visible. She suffers from a wheat allergy, at a time when there are no suitable food alternatives available amid the worsening famine .
“She became malnourished after being displaced,” her father said. “The doctor diagnosed her with a wheat allergy and advised us to provide her with meat and fruits, but everything is missing . ”
He points out that her weight decreased from 20 kg to 12 kg due to hunger .
A medical source in the children’s department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said: “We are witnessing severe overcrowding in the department, as we receive between 50 and 60 cases daily, most of which are chest and intestinal infections and meningitis, directly or indirectly linked to malnutrition . ”
He added: “We do not have any types of formula milk, and malnutrition weakens children’s immunity and makes them more susceptible to disease . ”
Since March 2, the occupation has tightly closed Gaza’s crossings to trucks carrying supplies and aid, piling up at the border. Only a few dozen trucks are allowed in, while Palestinians in Gaza need at least 500 trucks per day .
Beyond the oversight of the United Nations and international organizations, a US-Israeli mechanism began on May 27 to distribute limited aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Its distribution points have turned into “death traps,” with more than 600 civilians killed and at least 4,278 others injured by Israeli airstrikes and gunfire while waiting to receive aid, according to medical sources.
Since October 7 , 2023, Israel, the occupying power, has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, including killing, starvation, destruction, and displacement, ignoring international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it .
This war left more than 192,000 dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced people and a famine that claimed the lives of many, including dozens of children .
-article from Wafa news agency
