Gaza’s youngest starve first as siege chokes off lifesaving aid
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In Gaza, children are dying from hunger and lack of medical care as famine unfolds under blockade, with aid blocked and hospitals warning of total collapse.
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Mourners pray over the tiny body of Soad Qeshtah, who died hours after being delivered from her mother, seven-months pregnant Soad al-Shaer, killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP)
The mounting humanitarian toll in Gaza was underscored by the death of 10-year-old Nour Abu Sala'a, who succumbed to starvation and lack of medical care, an emblem of the spiraling crisis under "Israel’s" months-long blockade, which has cut off food, medicine, and clean water for Gaza’s 2.1 million residents.
In a damning alert released Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger watchdog, warned that "the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" in Gaza. The IPC noted that acute malnutrition, disease, and extreme food deprivation have reached catastrophic levels in several areas, especially Gaza City.
Although Gaza has not yet received a formal famine designation, pending a full assessment, the IPC confirmed it would begin one “without delay". The group, composed of 21 UN agencies and humanitarian organizations, said current data already shows Gaza surpassing famine thresholds for food consumption and child malnutrition.
“Immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access at scale is the only way to prevent more deaths and further catastrophic suffering,” the IPC stated. The organization emphasized that nearly 90% of Gaza lies under evacuation orders or within militarized zones, making food distribution almost impossible.
Al-Awda Hospital warns: Gaza’s children deprived of food
On the health condition of Gaza's youngest, a senior doctor at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza, has issued a dire warning about the rapidly deteriorating health conditions among children, saying the ongoing Israeli blockade has entirely cut off access to vital nutritional supplements and medical aid.
Speaking to Al Mayadeen, Dr. Rana Zaiter, head of the Clinical Nutrition Department, confirmed that the hospital is facing a catastrophic shortage of pediatric supplies, placing thousands of vulnerable children at immediate risk.
“Medical aid has not reached us at all,” Dr. Zaiter stated bluntly. She stressed that all reports claiming aid is entering Gaza are “a big lie” and emphasized that essential nutritional treatments, particularly for infants and malnourished children, have been completely halted.
Without these supplements, Dr. Zaiter warned, the hospital cannot meet the basic health needs of Gaza’s children, many of whom are already weakened by months of displacement, hunger, and trauma.
Exacerbating the crisis is the soaring cost of infant formula, now selling for as much as $100 per canister, far beyond the reach of most families in the war-torn Strip. “The price of baby formula has skyrocketed under the blockade,” Dr. Zaiter said, noting that families are being forced to choose between feeding their children and surviving themselves.
“The health catastrophe is no longer approaching,” she stressed. “It’s unfolding in front of us, child by child.”
Aid system failing, experts warn
While "Israel" announced on Sunday that it would allow daily 10-hour pauses in some areas and open new aid corridors, rights groups have dismissed these gestures as insufficient. According to IPC figures, Gaza requires 62,000 metric tonnes of food per month; in May, only 19,900 MT entered, and in June, just 37,800, well below what is needed to sustain the population.
David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, warned against waiting for a formal famine declaration. “By the time Somalia was declared in famine in 2011, a quarter of a million people had already died, half of them children. We cannot afford to wait for another catastrophe, he said.
'All the signals are there now'
Likewise, the UN's World Food Programme warned Tuesday that the disaster unfolding in Gaza was reminiscent of famines seen in Ethiopia and Biafra, Nigeria, in the 20th century.
"This is unlike anything we have seen in this century. It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century," WFP emergency director Ross Smith told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Rome.
"We need urgent action now," he insisted, highlighting how "disaster is unfolding in front of our eyes, in front of our television screens."
"This is not a warning: this is a call to action," he asserted, once again.
Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP's food security and nutrition analysis director, insisted that "what we're seeing is mounting evidence that a famine is there".
"All the signals are there now."
US-backed aid track criticized as unworkable
Although some aid resumed after an 11-week blockade, new mechanisms for delivery have come under fire. The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by Washington and "Israel" but operating outside the UN system, has faced widespread criticism for distributing insufficient and impractical food items. The IPC noted that most GHF packages require water and fuel to prepare, both of which are scarce in Gaza.
The IPC’s independent Famine Review Committee warned bluntly that GHF’s strategy “would lead to mass starvation.”
Meanwhile, Israeli and US officials allege that Hamas is diverting aid, an accusation Hamas denies. UN agencies have said there is no evidence of systematic theft.
UN: Gaza ‘deteriorating rapidly’
A spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that “the situation is deteriorating rapidly,” and called on "Israel" to lift all restrictions on aid entry and facilitate the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale.
With nearly 60,000 Palestinians killed since October 2023 and the vast majority of Gaza’s population displaced, starving, or under fire, aid agencies warn that the horrors of famine, already visible, will soon be undeniable and irreversible if the siege continues.
