Thousands of Palestinian infants in Gaza are facing life-threatening malnutrition, warned UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell on Monday, emphasizing that “every minute counts in saving lives.”
Russell described the deteriorating humanitarian conditions: many Palestinian mothers have either been killed in Israeli airstrikes or are too severely malnourished to breastfeed, due to Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza.
“These conditions put countless infants at risk of death or irreversible health complications,” she stated.
Since March 2, Israel—the occupying power—has sealed all Gaza crossings, cutting off vital aid and plunging the enclave’s 2.4 million residents into famine.
The siege is part of a broader campaign launched on October 7, 2023, which the UN and human rights organizations have characterized as a genocidal war.
This includes systematic killings, starvation, destruction of infrastructure, and forced displacement, all carried out in defiance of international appeals and binding rulings from the International Court of Justice.
Displacement in Gaza is no longer a singular tragedy—it’s a brutal, recurring rhythm of survival. Families pack what little they have, fleeing one shattered zone only to land in another soon to be razed.
As of mid-2025, over 1.9 million Palestinians, nearly four out of five residents, have been forcibly uprooted, many more than once. Homes have vanished, neighborhoods erased, and the concept of safety is rendered meaningless.
|UN: “One in Three in Gaza Without Food For Days”|
Among the most striking epicenters of this crisis is Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, bordering Egypt.
By early 2024, it had absorbed over a million displaced people, transforming into a dense, tented city seemingly overnight.
Once viewed as a potential refuge, Rafah quickly succumbed to the same pattern of airstrikes, incursions, and deprivation that had engulfed the north.
For thousands, arrival in Rafah was not the end of flight, it was merely another waypoint before being uprooted again.
This repeated displacement has shredded the social fabric. Families are scattered, children are separated, and trauma compounds with each move. Schools turned into shelters have faced attacks; hospitals, already overwhelmed, now function as both emergency clinics and last sanctuaries. With few places left untouched and no consistent aid corridors, the population faces a paralyzing dilemma: stay and risk death, or flee with nowhere to go.
Humanitarian organizations describe Gaza as a place where mobility no longer guarantees safety. The international legal principle of civilian protection has eroded under siege, with forced displacement now intertwined with starvation and infrastructural collapse. In Rafah and beyond, the daily act of survival has become an unspeakable endurance.
According to recent reports, the ongoing Israeli bombardment has resulted in over 194,000 dead or injured, primarily women and children, with more than 11,000 missing. Mass starvation continues to claim lives, including dozens of children.
