Children are dying of hunger at the hands of their parents as famine spreads in Gaza

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Younis lies motionless on a makeshift bed at the Nasser Medical Institute in southern Gaza. His long brown eyelashes delicately frame his lightly sunken face as he goes in and out on holidays.

A 9-year-old Palestinian boy is in the arms of his mother, who is apparently suffering from unfortunate malnutrition and dehydration. Her blue jogging bottoms hug her emaciated legs, as her slight ribs peek out from her bulging orange T-shirt.

“I call on sane people to help me find health care for my son so he can get back to normal,” his mother Ghanima Juma told CNN while he was in hospital in Khan Younis. “I am losing my son before my eyes.”

Two months ago, people were forced to flee the southern city of Rafah as Israel stepped up its attacks there. For now, they are trying to live to tell the tale, living along Asda’s polluted coastline – like the Al-Mawasi tent camp – where they lack access to plentiful food, water, or even shade. Is. Gaza’s heat.

His mother said, “Because of wars and invasions we have to move from one area to another…life is difficult.” “We don’t even have a tent over our heads.”

Israel’s war in Gaza has exhausted the area’s fitness machine, leaving staff unable to pay attention to malnourished children. Doctors tell CNN they are being pressured to turn away parents begging for baby milk, even as they treat young patients suffering from chronic diseases caused by unfortunate hunger. Can’t do it.

And as Israel continues its siege of Gaza, with aid groups struggling to deliver enough food to the enclave, parents say they have no choice but to watch their children die of hunger. . More than 8 months of bombardment has destroyed infrastructure, burned communities and damaged entire neighborhoods. According to the United Nations, sanitation systems – already strained by H2O shortages due to the extreme heat – were massively destroyed, reducing access to clean H2O.

A report published on Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Cluster Classification (IPC), which assesses global food security concerns and malnutrition, warned that much of Gaza could face famine within the next three months.

The UN food agency previously warned that southern Gaza could soon see “catastrophic levels of starvation” similar to those recorded in the past in the north, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war.

The state-run Media Administrative Center reported on June 22 that at least 34 children had died from malnutrition in Gaza. The real number may be higher, as limited access to Gaza has hampered efforts by aid agencies to fully assess the situation there. , The United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said before the show that more than 50,000 children needed treatment for severe malnutrition.

Israel announced its military offensive in Gaza, then launched Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,200 civilians and abducting more than 250 others.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have so far killed 37,658 Palestinians and injured 86,237 others, according to Gaza health officials.

As Younes suffered at the hands of his mother in the south of Gaza, children in the north were suffering even longer periods of food shortages. Inside the Jabalya refugee camp, they line up on an H2O truck, walking through debris-strewn streets, beads of sweat rolling down their faces.

Dozens of other Gazans banded together to gain access to H2O as support workers delivered thick, steaming pink soup from giant saucepans.

Access to food and free H2O is unusual. People in the north told CNN they have resorted to polluted H2O in recent years, which leads to dehydration and spread of infectious diseases.

Israel insists there is “no limit” on the amount of aid it can receive to Gaza, but its inspection regime on trucks, restrictions on land routes and heightened bombardment methods are dampening the joy. Even if aid does enter the besieged area, there is still the danger of hungry Palestinians overrunning the convoys, hampering distribution efforts. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently warned that the lack of police administration in Gaza during the war had led to “complete chaos”.

Earlier this year, the United Nations warned that Israel was creating an “entirely man-made crisis” in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied allegations by the Global Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor that he has “used the starvation of civilians as a method of war.”

“We only have water which we get as aid. The suffering people are suffering as a result is indescribable,” said Hasan Kalash, a citizen. “We are sick and we do not have the strength to deliver water… the water pipe is broken. “We don’t have water infrastructure.”

Citizens there informed CNN that they have been refused entry to the working H2O due to low support in the section. UNRWA recently said that at least 67% of H2O and sanitation facilities in the Gaza Strip were destroyed or damaged within eight months of the bombing. According to the United Nations Climate Programme, all five waste water treatment plants in Gaza have been virtually destroyed.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has accused the Israeli government of obstructing humanitarian entry into northern Gaza. In the first three weeks of June, 36 vans sporting support – which were assisted by Israel – were allowed access to Gaza, while another 35 were either denied entry or due to logistical, operational, or military reasons. They were barred from entry or cancelled. Or security reasons.

The effect on grassland is visceral. At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Medical Institute in central Gaza, 5-year-old Razan wears a gold ring on his finger, which is covered in pink lesions. Palestinian woman lies on a trolley inside the central Gaza facility, her brown fatigues visible.

“She changed after the war. She had become weak,” her aunt, Um Razan Mheitam, told CNN, adding that her niece had developed skin inflammation due to malnutrition. “We couldn’t find anything for him. Everything in the market is expensive, or not available.”

According to aid businesses and fitness workers, newborn young children and pregnant girls in Gaza are most at risk of malnutrition and dehydration. Undernourished mothers are more likely to give birth prematurely, leading to the death of newborns due to their very low birth weight.

At Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, doctors were unable to keep baby Amal alive just four days after her birth.

CNN filmed the moments before her passing, showing Amal breathing heavily in an incubator, then her mother, Samaher, having given birth just two months earlier. Her modest red legs are wrapped in plastic tubes.

“These children are dying. It’s God’s decision, but it’s because of people,” her father, Ahmed Makat, told CNN before she died on Saturday. Makat said Samaher spent several months of her pregnancy without deep sleep or food.

“Everyone in these beds today is at risk of dying. We are waiting for them to die one by one,” he said, his voice trembling with disaster. “We have no life.”

Dr. Ahmed Kahlot, head of the incubators branch at Kamal Adwan, told CNN that Samaher’s good fitness meant his daughter was simply “waiting to die.”

Many of those who live to tell the tale are too weak and malnourished to breastfeed their children. However Fitness staff told CNN there are few options for babies that are lactose independent or lack soy milk.

Every other Palestinian at the Kamal Adwan Medical Institute informed CNN that her son, who suffers from an infected esophagus, is not able to get the soy milk he wants in his condition. “He barely sits,” she said of her 2-year-old. “He can’t even crawl, can’t walk.”

About 250 patients are receiving treatment for malnutrition at the medical facility, and only two stabilization centers for severely malnourished children are operational in Gaza, OCHA reported earlier, leaving about 3,000 children at risk in the south. Were receiving treatment for severe malnutrition. Before the army advance into Rafah.

Doctors say amid shortages in scientific supplies they are often unable to attend to young children who show signs of malnutrition, including breathing problems, chest infections and, unfortunately, dehydration. Malnourished patients suffering from chronic illness or infectious diseases are less likely to recover, a local pediatrician told CNN, with the problem becoming more prevalent in displacement shelters. The Gaza government has recorded more than 1.4 million cases of infectious diseases since October 7, according to the health ministry there.

As hunger continues to grow and parts of the enclave grapple with ongoing famine, support businesses have repeatedly called for land crossing holes into Gaza, which they say would bring joy to the strip. It is a good tool. A US-made floating pier designed to provide support via sea has been beset by issues – ranging from negative sea conditions to delivery problems after support is transferred to land – failing to put together a vital spare Situation.

Back in Khan Younis, Ismail Madi told CNN how worried he was for his 4-year-old son, Ahmed, who was suffering from jaundice due to malnutrition.

“My son will not survive this,” he said. “I call on US President Joe Biden to intervene to save this child who has nothing to do with any political conflict,” Maddy said.

However just a few days later, the boy died. With alternative babies, Maddie’s presence as a parent is fraught with tension.

“It is very difficult to feed a family of 10 in these difficult times.”