There are many ways to die in the Gaza Strip. During a visit to the Newborn Ward on Friday, a team from NBC News witnessed what was reserved for the enclave’s most vulnerable residents as Israel continues to restrict entry to Gaza.
In the newborn ward at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, Dr. Ahmad Al-Fara spends the day feeding an incubator trying to keep half a dozen babies alive.
“These children are slowly facing death,” said Alfara, who leads the department.
Due to the inability to restock supplies, Dr. Marwan Al Hams, director of field hospitals in Gaza, told NBC News on Saturday:
“Malnutrition in mothers during pregnancy or breastfeeding has worsened the situation and there is an increasing number of cases of malnutrition between newborns and children,” he added.
Other types of milk not prescribed for newborns are still available in small quantities that Alphara said volunteers are often sourced from the market at exorbitant prices.
Without proper nutrition, Gaza doctors say they have seen their children not only waste but also vulnerable to other illnesses. A protein deficiency quickly gives way to other complications such as infection, swelling and organ failure.
According to Al-Hams, at least 66 children have died as a result of hunger and malnutrition since the current conflict began on October 7, 2023.
At Nasser Hospital, Al Falk is a 3-year-old Munis Dugaier in a critical condition. She needs to weigh 15 kilograms (33 pounds), he explains, but only weighs 10 (22 pounds).
Nearby, Noha al-Raham sits beside her frail newborn, Mohammad Hisham al-Raham.
“My child needs milk and vitamins to survive,” she says with tears on her cheeks. “I want him to grow up and see life.”
The UN and other organizations have long warned Gaza is at risk of hunger, but UNICEF says the hunger crisis has deepened in recent months.
The children at Nasser Hospital are one of more than 16,000 people between six months and five years old, where UNICEF estimates have been admitted to hospitals and clinics so far this year due to acute malnutrition.
According to UNICEF, the 11-week lockdown on Israeli food, aid and medical supplies caused a 150% surge in children recognized as malnutrition. The lockdown was partially lifted on May 19th, but malnutrition cases continue.
“All incidents are preventable,” Eduard Beigvader, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement. “The food, water and nutritional treatment they desperately need is prevented from reaching them.”
Under current conditions, UNICEF said cases of acute malnutrition are likely to rise in the coming weeks, potentially reaching the highest level since the start of the conflict.
“This is one of the population of children where waste was not present 20 months ago,” he said in a statement, referring to the situation in Gaza before the current conflict began on October 7, 2023.
The starving infant is the quiet death of the aid system, which has been criticized for being inadequate by fatal violence.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israel partially lifted its total lockdown in Gaza on May 19, resulting in over 500 people being killed while trying to get food.
Doctors without borders accused the system of “slaughterhouses disguised as humanitarian aid,” calling for it to be shut down, and Israel’s daily Harletz reported on Friday that soldiers were ordered to shoot civilians approaching aid. Israeli forces said they were investigating the charges, according to Haaretz’s report, and the GHF urged a full investigation.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the GHF’s operations “inherently insecure,” urging the recovery of the UN’s own aid distribution system in Gaza, and accusing Israeli forces of creating a “terrifying proportion of humanitarian crisis.”
Israeli authorities have begun to allow several UN agencies and other organisations to bring a limited amount of aid, in addition to the aid being distributed by the GHF.
Back at Nasser Hospital, Dr. Aziz Lerman, an American intensive care expert at Khan Eunice, reflected Guterres’ warning.
“There are 600,000 children in Gaza with under five malnourished children. The worst and worst children are watching,” he said. “Can you feed these babies? The answer is simple. Allow aid to come in. The solution is simple. The problem is artificial.”
