There are many ways to die in the Gaza Strip, and during a visit to a neonatal ward on Friday, NBC News’ team on the ground witnessed one reserved for the enclave’s most vulnerable residents: babies starving for lack of formula as Israel continues to restrict supplies from entering Gaza.
At the neonatal ward in Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, Dr. Ahmad al-Fara spends the day attending to beeping incubators trying to keep half a dozen babies alive, each one trapped in a crisis that could claim their life.
“These children are facing slow death,” al-Fara, who heads the department, said.
With dwindling supplies unable to be replenished, Dr. Marwan al-Hams, Gaza’s Director of Field Hospitals, told NBC News on Saturday, “we currently do not have Type 1 or 2 infant formula in hospitals, nor do we have the medical formula we use in incubators.”
“The malnutrition of pregnant or breastfeeding mothers exacerbates the situation, with cases of malnutrition among newborns and children increasing,” he added.
Other types of milk, not formulated for newborns, are still available in small quantities that al-Fara said volunteers are procuring from the market, often at exorbitant prices.
Without proper nutrition, doctors in Gaza say they have seen children not only waste away, but become vulnerable to other diseases. A lack of protein quickly gives way to other complications, including infections, swelling, and organ failure.
At least 66 children have died as a result of hunger and malnutrition since the current conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, according to al-Hams.
At Nasser Hospital, Al-Farruq tends to Shams Mu’nis Dughayr, a three-year-old in critical condition, her belly and legs swollen due to a severe lack of protein. She should weigh 15 kilograms (33 pounds), he explains, but only weighs ten (22 pounds).
Nearby, Noha al-Lahham sits beside her frail newborn, Mohammad Hisham al-Lahham.
“My child needs milk and vitamins to live,” she says with tears on her cheeks. “I want him to grow up and see life.”
While the United Nations and other organizations have long warned that Gaza is at risk of famine, UNICEF says the hunger crisis has deepened in recent months.
The children at Nasser Hospital are among the more than 16,000 between the ages of six months and five years that UNICEF estimates have been admitted into hospitals and clinics for acute malnutrition so far this year.
According to UNICEF, Israel’s 11-week blockade on food, aid, and medical supplies triggered a 150% surge in children admitted for malnutrition. The blockade was partially lifted on May 19, but the malnutrition cases continue.
“Every one of the cases is preventable,” UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, said in a statement. “The food, water and nutrition treatments they desperately need are being blocked from reaching them.”
Under the current conditions, UNICEF said cases of acute malnutrition were likely to rise in the coming weeks, and could reach the highest level since the beginning of the conflict.
“This is among a population of children where wasting was non-existent 20 months ago,” it said in a statement, referring to conditions in Gaza before the current conflict began on Oct 7, 2023.
The starving infants are the quieter deaths in an aid system criticized as inadequate and marred by fatal violence.
Since Israel partially lifted its total blockade on Gaza on May 19, more than 500 people have been killed while trying to get food, including in the vicinity of distribution sites run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the Gaza’s health ministry.
Doctors Without Borders condemned the system as “a slaughterhouse masquerading as humanitarian aid,” calling for it to be shut down, and Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday that soldiers were ordered to shoot at civilians approaching aid. The Israeli military said it is investigating the accusations, according to the Haaretz report, and GHF has urged a full inquiry.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called GHF’s operations “inherently unsafe,” and urged the reinstatement of the U.N.’s own aid distribution system in Gaza, accusing the Israeli military of creating “a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions.”
Israeli authorities have begun to allow some U.N. agencies and other organizations to bring in limited quantities of aid, in addition to the aid being distributed by GHF.
Back at Nasser Hospital, Dr. Aziz Rahman, an American intensive care specialist volunteering in Khan Younis, echoed Guterres’ warning.
“There are 600,000 kids under five in Gaza who are malnourished, and we are seeing the worst of the worst,” he said. “Can we feed these babies? The answer is simple: allow aid to come in. The solution is easy. The problem is man-made.”
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