Gaza: Mother's desperate plea to feed baby – BBC News

Five-month-old Abdul Aziz al-Hourani lies in his bed at Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza, his tiny body showing signs of malnutrition.

Weighing only 3 kg (6.6 lb), Abdul Aziz He has just been released from the intensive care unit, where he was treated for severe malnutrition.

Her mother says she is not getting the food she needs in Gaza. “This is my only child. He is supposed to weigh at least 5 kg (11 lb) and I am very worried about his health,” she says. “I can't take him abroad because the border is closed.”

Abdul Aziz's story is not unique. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 8,000 children under the age of five have been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition – 1,600 of them severe – since the war began.

Last week, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “there have already been 32 deaths from malnutrition, including 28 children under the age of five”.

In early June, the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, reported that nine out of 10 children in Gaza are experiencing severe food poverty, surviving on two or fewer food groups per day. It said that “months of adversity and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed food and health systems, with catastrophic consequences” and that children are “at risk of life-threatening malnutrition”.

I was born in Gaza and lived there with my family – I reported from there until February.

Before the war, I knew the al-Tufah district of northern Gaza as a place of thousands of shoppers. But when I called people who were still there to ask about the situation, they sent me pictures showing that it was now almost deserted.

“There are no tomatoes, no cucumbers, no fruit and no bread,” said Salim Shabaka, an elderly man in the market. He tells me only some used clothes and a limited supply of canned food are on display.

“We have never known such a life – nothing to buy or sell,” added another street vendor.

“I have seven children and I got no help.”

Every day, long queues form in front of “tikkeyas” – small food stalls offering free food. Northern Gaza has been financed by many well-to-do individuals, but supply shortages mean their future is uncertain.

For now, this is where some children go to try hot food, while others walk long distances to fetch water.

Almost every day, I talk to relatives and friends in Gaza. In the pictures they send me, I can see that they have lost weight and I have noticed a change in their appearance.

And the WHO's Dr Tedros warned that “despite reports of increased food supply, there is currently no evidence that those who need it most are receiving sufficient quantity and quality of food”.

He added that due to insecurity and lack of access, only two stabilization centers for severely malnourished patients can currently function. He warned that a lack of health services, clean water and sanitation “significantly increases the risk of malnourished children”.

The situation also means the spread of infectious diseases such as hepatitis is more likely. Most hospitals and clinics are closed and those still operating are damaged and overcrowded.

“We are drained and powerless,” said Umm Fuad Jaber, an elderly woman in Jabalia, northern Gaza. “We have been displaced several times, and people are being killed every day.”

“We have eaten animal food, and children and women are dying of malnutrition. Disease has eaten away at our bodies.”

Palestinian doctor Motasem Said Salah, a member of the Hamas-run Ministry of Health's emergency committee, confirmed that dozens of cases of malnutrition are reported daily, especially among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

He says many people, already suffering from chronic diseases, now also struggle with other health conditions.

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.

The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands more injured or displaced since the war began.

Gazans look to humanitarian aid to survive, but are not getting enough supplies.

At one point, the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border south of Gaza was the main entry point for aid. But since Israel now controls the Gaza side of the crossing, it remains closed.

Also south is the Keram Shalom entrance from Israel. It is open, but the war has limited the flow of aid along this route.

Some food is also being sent north through new crossing points, but aid has fallen by two-thirds since May 7, according to UN figures, and supplies to the south are dwindling, according to the World Food Programme.

A US-built floating pier for aid shipments was out of action for days after being damaged by bad weather, and has since been temporarily moved due to high seas.

Twenty international aid agencies warned that “the unexpected trickle of aid to Gaza has created a mirage of improved access while the humanitarian response is on the brink of collapse”.

Last week, Gaza's Hamas-run government said no more than 35 lorries were entering Gaza every day and said it was the only source of food and medicine for 700,000 people in northern Gaza.

But in a June 13 post on X, the Israeli agency responsible for humanitarian coordination, Kogat, said: “More than a billion pounds of food have been transferred to Gaza since the war began.

“There is no limit to (a) mount of humanitarian aid, including all types of medicine, that can enter Gaza.”

In another post the same day, Kogat said 220 aid lorries entered Gaza that day. It blamed aid agencies for logistical failures in distributing food and other supplies and said more than 1,300 aid lorries were still awaiting collection.

The United Nations says the distribution of what is available is severely hampered by war, law-and-order violations and other restrictions by Israel.

On Sunday, the Israeli military announced a “strategic pause in military activity” along a road in southern Gaza to allow more humanitarian aid to enter. But it insisted there was no ceasefire and that the war would continue in Rafah. Israel says its operation in Rafah is necessary to oust Hamas from the group's “last major stronghold”.

The outages, which reportedly began on Saturday, will be from 08:00 to 19:00 local time (05:00 to 16:00 GMT) and will only affect one route heading north from the Kerem Shalom crossing.

A UN spokesman welcomed the announcement but noted on Sunday that it had not yet increased aid on the ground.

UN agencies have previously warned that more than a million Palestinians in Gaza could face severe starvation by mid-July if hostilities continue.