Children Are Starving in Gaza, as Soldiers Kill People Looking for Food
Support Us
© THE INTERCEPT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Doctors trying to save starving children and parents trying to feed their families spoke with The Intercept. A child receives treatment for malnutrition at the Patient Friends Benevolent Society hospital in Gaza City on May 29, 2025. Photo: Huda Skaik
In Gaza's clinics and overwhelmed hospitals, doctors and nutritionists face a haunting, daily reality: children wasting away before their eyes, unable to stand and play, who can hardly breathe.
Israeli troops are massacring people at food distribution sites every day. On Tuesday alone, soldiers killed at least 70 people and wounded hundreds seeking food at the distribution site set up by Israel and the U.S. They shot people with tank shells, drones, and machine guns as they tried to get food.
Malnutrition is no longer a looming threat; it is a full-blown humanitarian emergency exacerbated by relentless genocide, siege, and the systematic breakdown of Gaza's health care infrastructure.
As the genocide on Gaza grinds on after Israel's breaking of the ceasefire, doctors and mothers across the Strip describe an unfolding catastrophe: a severe and accelerating child malnutrition crisis that, left unchecked, could claim thousands of lives.
Israel's 80-day blockade that has enforced a strict closure of crossings and blocked aid deliveries has resulted in nearly 330 deaths, most of them children.
To learn how malnutrition is affecting the children of Gaza, I spoke to three nutritionist doctors and one mother struggling to feed her baby in Gaza. Baby Eleen on February 26, 2025. Photo: Batoul Abu Ali
Batoul Abu Ali gave birth to her daughter, Eleen Hallak, on May 21, 2024, amid the chaos of war. Now just over a year old, Eleen is already showing signs of malnutrition.
'She used to be healthier,' Batoul says. 'Now her diet lacks fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy — everything a child needs. I can only feed her twice a day: maybe some tomato, zucchini, potato, lentils, or fortified biscuits.' Batoul struggles most with finding milk for her baby. 'No one can watch their child go hungry. I do everything I can to find food, but it's never enough.'
Batoul has received some guidance from specialists and is prescribed nutritional biscuits and peanut butter paste for Eleen, but access is inconsistent. 'I've fallen into depression. I just want to keep my little lovely baby Eleen alive,' she says. Mothers like Batoul are left with impossible choices, to try to keep their children alive while waiting for the crossings to open.
Dr. Suzan Ma'rouf is a clinical nutritionist at the Patient Friend's Benevolent Society in Gaza City. 'Children are losing weight rapidly,' she says. 'They show all the signs: wasting, yellowing skin, thinning hair, brittle nails.'
Dr. Ma'rouf describes a sharp increase in malnutrition cases since the beginning of the war, worsened further by the closure of border crossings since March. 'Even when food is available, the prices are astronomical. Most families, especially large ones, simply cannot afford to feed their children nutritious meals,' she explains. 'Newborns and their mothers are especially vulnerable due to the severe shortage of infant formula, hygiene products, and maternal supplements.'
At the Friend's Benevolent Society, Dr. Ma'rouf is currently following over 3,500 children regularly, with more new cases emerging daily. She notes that both moderate and severe forms of malnutrition are rampant, with children suffering from vitamin and mineral deficiencies. In this condition, their bodies begin consuming their own nutrient stores, leading to exhaustion, stunted physical, and cognitive growth.
Treatment is nearly impossible for malnutrition in Gaza. 'With the blockade, we don't have access to therapeutic food, fortified biscuits, or medical-grade nutrition. Even when we catch cases early, we don't have the supplements to stop them from worsening,' confirms Dr. Ma'rouf.
Read our complete coverage A baby receives treatment for malnutrition at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat on May 31, 2025. Photo: Courtesy of Nader Garghon/Al-Awda Hospital
Dr. Rana Zaiter is chief of clinical nutrition at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the middle of the Gaza Strip, which has a specialized department to treat severe acute malnutrition in children under 5. She paints a bleak picture: 'We are overwhelmed. Every day, we see more children arriving with extreme weight loss, anemia, and symptoms of immune deficiency. Children are too weak to fight infections. They have constant gastrointestinal illnesses, are lethargic, dizzy, and often can't even play or stand. Some are developing bowed legs — a clear sign of rickets and calcium deficiency.'
Dr. Zaiter attributes the explosion in cases to the ongoing famine, closure of crossings for over 80 days, and soaring poverty. 'Mothers cannot breastfeed properly due to their own poor nutrition. Their milk is insufficient and unfulfilling. Babies cry constantly from hunger,' she says. 'Pregnant women are giving birth prematurely, to underweight babies, because their bodies can no longer sustain the burden of pregnancy.'
Dr. Zaiter adds that nearly one-third of all pediatric cases at Al-Awda now involve moderate or severe malnutrition. The hospital follows treatment protocols from WHO and UNICEF, but a dire lack of supplies— including therapeutic foods, fortified biscuits, high-energy peanut butter, and infant formula — has crippled their ability to treat patients effectively.
'When the crossings briefly reopened in late May, only a tiny fraction of the needed supplies made it through — barely 1 percent of actual demand,' said Dr. Zaiter. 'We are operating in lifesaving mode. We need urgent international action to open the crossings and flood Gaza with nutritional aid before it's too late.'
From Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, I spoke to a pediatric nutrition specialist, who requested anonymity. They highlighted the systematic breakdown in services across Gaza: 'Many malnutrition clinics have shut down following the collapse of the ceasefire and displacement of entire neighborhoods. The most common cases we now treat involve iron-deficiency anemia and rickets — both preventable if children had access to basic nutrition.'
Malnutrition affects more than the body. 'Iron deficiency causes loss of appetite and long-term developmental delays. Severe or moderate malnutrition also severely impacts a child's mental health and cognitive development,' they say.
Access to treatment is a growing concern. 'Many families live far from functioning clinics, and there's no transportation to come to the clinics and check on their children,' they say. 'The clinics that remain are understocked and overstretched. On top of that, many children refuse to take nutritional supplements, and we have no alternatives.'
In Gaza, keeping a baby alive is now an act of resistance, of endurance. Doctors, nutritionists, and mothers alike are calling and appealing for the crossings to open, for aid to be allowed in, for the massacres to stop. Otherwise, Gaza's children continue to waste away, their futures starving before they have had a chance to begin and draw the first steps of their lives. Join The Conversation
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Ukrainian girl in Israel for life-saving leukemia treatment tragically killed by Iranian air strike
A 7-year-old girl who left war-torn Ukraine to get life-saving leukemia treatment in Israel has been killed by an Iranian air strike, according to 'heartbroken and devastated' Israeli officials. Nastia Borik died when an Iranian missile struck their apartment in Bat Yam last weekend — with her mom, grandmother and two cousins killed alongside her, Israeli officials said. 'We are heartbroken and devastated,' the state of Israel's X account said in a post. 4 A 7-year-old Ukrainian girl who came to Israel for life-saving leukemia treatment was tragically killed by an Iranian air strike. X / @Israel 4 Damaged buildings seen in Ramat Gan, Israel on June 19, 2025. '7-year-old Nastia Borik came to Israel for life-saving Leukemia treatment. On Saturday, she was murdered—along with her mother, grandmother, and two young cousins by missiles launched by the Iranian regime.' 'There are no words.' Nastia had left Ukraine to seek treatment after she was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia in 2022. 4 Nastia Borik left war-torn Ukraine for Israel to receive life-saving treatment. X / @Bring_Daughters Her father remained behind in Kyiv to fight against Russian forces, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported. Despite undergoing a bone marrow transplant in the Jewish state and initially responding well to treatment, the little girl's cancer returned. She had only just started a new form of treatment earlier this year when she was killed. The harrowing details emerged as Iran and Israel continued to strike each other a week into their war. 4 Personal objects at the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in an apartment in Ramat Gan, Israel. AP The war erupted June 13 when Israel started firing missiles at nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. Israeli forces on Friday were ordered to intensify the strikes in an effort to completely 'destabilize' the regime.
Chicago Tribune
12 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
What to know about the conflict between Israel and Iran
ATHENS, Greece — The open conflict sparked by Israel's sudden barrage of attacks against Iran's nuclear and military structure shows no signs of abating on the seventh day of hostilities between the two longtime foes that threatens to spiral into a wider, more dangerous regional war. An Iranian missile hit a hospital in southern Israel early Thursday, while others struck an apartment building in Tel Aviv and other sites in central Israel, wounding at least 40 people. The barrage led Israel's defense minister to overtly threaten Iran's supreme leader. Israel, meanwhile, struck Iran's heavy water reactor, part of the country's nuclear program, which its government insists is meant for peaceful purposes only. Israel says Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. President Donald Trump has been making increasingly sharp warnings about the possibility of the U.S. joining in attacks against Iran, while Iran's leader has warned the United States would suffer 'irreparable damage' if it does so. President Trump says he'll decide whether US will directly attack Iran within 2 weeksThe strikes began last Friday, with Israel targeting Iranian military and nuclear sites, killing several top military officials and nuclear scientists. Iran retaliated by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, some of which have penetrated the country's vaunted multi-tiered air defense system. The region has been on edge for the past two years as Israel seeks to annihilate the Hamas group, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where war still rages after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. Here's what to know about the conflict between Israel and Iran: An Iranian missile hit Soroka Medical Center, in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, early Thursday, striking an old surgery building that had been evacuated in recent days. The hospital, the largest health-care facility in southern Israel, has over 1,000 beds and serves around 1 million residents of the area. Several people were lightly wounded in the strike, local authorities said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, vowing to 'exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.' Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz blamed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the strike, and said the military 'has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.' U.S. officials said this week that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei. Trump later said there were no plans to kill him, 'at least not for now.' Many Israeli hospitals have activated emergency plans in the past week, moving patients underground to be treated in parking areas converted into hospital floors. Israel also boasts a fortified, subterranean blood bank. On Monday, Iranian authorities said at least 224 people had been killed and more than 1,200 wounded in Israeli strikes. No updated figures have been made available, but a Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed and more than 1,300 wounded. Retaliatory Iranian strikes on Israel have killed 24 people and wounded hundreds. Israeli fighter jets targeted Iran's Arak heavy water reactor, located about 155 miles southwest of Tehran, on Thursday. Heavy water is used as a coolant for certain types of reactors, with plutonium — which can be used to make an atomic bomb — produced as a byproduct. 'The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,' the Israeli military said. Iranian state television said there was 'no radiation danger whatsoever' and that the facility had been evacuated before the attack. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the heavy water research reactor was hit, adding that 'it was not operational and contained no nuclear material, so no radiological effects.' The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said it had no information on whether the heavy water plant next to the reactor had been hit. Israel views Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat, and has said its airstrikes are necessary to prevent Iran from building an atomic weapon. U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA have repeatedly said Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon when Israel unleashed its airstrikes. But the U.N. agency has questioned Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium and last week censured the country for failing to comply with inspectors. Iran enriches uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. It is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich at that level. Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but does not acknowledge having such weapons. Trump has made increasingly pointed warnings about the possibility of U.S. military involvement in the conflict. On Wednesday, he said he didn't want to carry out a U.S. strike on Iran but suggested he was ready to act if necessary. 'I'm not looking to fight,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 'But if it's a choice between fighting and having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.' He has been noncommittal on what his plans might be. 'I may do it, I may not do it,' Trump said of a potential U.S. strike. 'I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. Nothing is finished until it is finished. The next week is going to be very big — maybe less than a week.' Khamenei has rejected U.S. calls for surrender, saying that 'the Iranian nation is not one to surrender.' 'Americans should know that any military involvement by the U.S. will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage to them,' he said in a video statement Wednesday.
UPI
19 hours ago
- UPI
Study: Wars with Hamas and Iran pose health risks for all Israelis
1 of 7 | Israelis gather in a public bomb shelter in Jerusalem after air raid sirens warned of Iranian ballistic missiles that struck seven cities and a hospital compound early Thursday morning. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo June 19 (UPI) -- Israelis lack sleep and experience high anxiety amid the wars with Hamas and Iran as the two Middle East nations exchange deadly aerial blows. Rocket fire, missile strikes and sirens sounding every night have caused a "severe decline in sleep quality" since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians by Iran-supported Hamas, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology. The study by researchers at the Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center doesn't include the recent weeklong war between Israel and Iran. Researchers say the study is the first of its kind to document the effects of warfare on civilian sleep patterns, which could have "serious consequences." "Worldwide, much research focuses on the war's impact on soldiers," lead researcher Shoham Choshen-Hillel of Hebrew University's Business School said. "Until now, no systematic study examined sleep quality for civilians on the home front under daily threat," Choshen-Hillel said. "Israel's situation is unique, demanding a different perspective." Data analyzed from 9,000 participants The study collected and analyzed data from about 9,000 participants who participated in three researcher-led surveys from January 2023 to January 2024. Analysis shows the number of Israeli citizens sleeping less than six hours nightly rose from 13% before Oct. 7, 2023, to 31% during the survey period. Poor sleep health reports likewise increased from 15% to 38%, and clinical insomnia cases increased from 4% to 20%. Nearly half of those surveyed - 48% -- reported sleep problems after the war with Hamas began, which is up from 18% prior to the conflict. "The shocking picture for us is that sleep hasn't improved for a year and a half," Choshen-Hillel said. "Symptoms lasting over six months are significant," she added. "This isn't temporary. It's a long period health-wise with major implications." Among those most affected are women and those who have had friends or relatives killed, injured or abducted by on and after Oct. 7, 2023. Iran war makes matters much worse Choshen-Hillel said the war with Iran and its potential escalation are making the problem worse. "It's clear the situation regarding sleep and other aspects is the worst since the war began," she said. "People now wake for shelters multiple times a night and anxiety has understandably intensified," Choshen-Hillel explained. "I have no doubt that the situation is worse than we previously documented," she added. "We find even those not in direct danger experience deep, lasting psychological impacts from the war, manifesting in sleepless nights." The study was published at the same time that Iranian strikes killed eight Israeli civilians during the overnight hours from Sunday into Monday. The strikes raised the civilian death toll in Israel to 24 and likely 25 due to one person missing but expected to be declared dead, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday. The Iranian Health Ministry says at least 639 Iranians have died in the Israeli strikes there. Iranian strike on Israeli hospital compound An Iranian missile hit a hospital compound in Beer Sheva in southern Israel, where 400 patients were receiving medical treatment on Thursday. Dozens suffered injuries, but none were killed at the Soroka Medical Center, which still has about 300 patients. "Approximately 80 people were injured in the incident, about half are hospital staff," a hospital spokesperson said in a prepared statement. "All injuries were classified as mild or stress-related," the statement said, adding that the strike was the "most severe incident of its kind in the history of Israel's healthcare system." Iranian officials said they targeted a military installation located near the hospital, but Israeli officials said there is no such installation. "We are hitting with precision the targets of the nuclear and missile programs, and they're hitting the children's ward of a hospital," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a prepared statement on Thursday. "That's the whole difference between a democracy taking lawful action to save itself from these murderers and these murderers whose aim is to destroy every one of us," Netanyahu added.
