Currently Online 
Parents in Gaza helpless as their children starve to death
In Gaza today, famine is no longer a warning; it is a reality. Parents say they are feeling helpless as they watch their children starving to death in Israel’s man-made famine.
Among those at risk is 12-year-old Huda Abu Naja. Her mother says she was forced to bring her back to their tent after watching five other malnourished children die before her eyes at Nasser Hospital.
“My daughter has been suffering from acute malnutrition since March, when Israel closed Gaza’s borders,” said Somia Abu Naja, Huda’s mother. “She spent three months in hospitals, but her condition did not improve. She used to weigh 35kg, and now she is down to 20.”
As we’ve been reporting, the starvation death toll is rising day by day in the Gaza Strip. It’s now at 281, and more than 100 of them are children.
British surgeon recounts death of Gaza infant due to a lack of baby formula
Dr Nick Maynard, talking about the death of an infant in Gaza after Israeli border guards confiscated formula that doctors had tried to bring in, says, “I saw with my own eyes perfectly healthy children, prior to this, starving and dying.”
“I can tell you about little Zeyna, who’s a seven-month-old girl. I was with her only a few weeks ago. She looked like a newborn; you could see every single bone in her body underneath her skin. She had no muscle visible at all,” he said.
Maynard said she was being fed only sugar water “with no nutritional value at all, because there was no formula feed”. He added that Zeyna died while doctors waited at the border with “suitcases of formula feed” that were seized by Israeli border guards.
“Those bottles of formula could have saved Zeyna’s life,” he said.
“Even as famine grips Gaza, Israeli forces are targeting densely populated residential areas and makeshift camps, where displaced Palestinians are sheltering,” he added.
Maynard’s account comes as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification estimates 514,000 people in Gaza – about a quarter of the enclave’s population – are experiencing famine, a figure expected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.
289 Palestinians died of starvation: Gaza Health Ministry
Munir al-Bursh, director of the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, has spoken to Al Jazeera about the ongoing famine crisis gripping the enclave.
Here is a summary of his comments:
- 289 people, including 115 children, have died of starvation in Gaza.
- We are in a race against time to address famine, as the humanitarian response to it must be massive.
- The occupation’s prevention of residents from accessing healthcare is an intolerable violation.
- Eight Palestinians, including a child, have died due to food shortages in the past 24 hours.
