A two-month-old Palestinian boy died of starvation in northern Gaza, according to media reports, days after the United Nations warned of an “explosion” in child deaths due to Israel’s war against the besieged enclave.
The Shehab news agency said Mahmoud Fattouh died on Friday at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Footage, verified by Tel Aviv Tribune, shows the emaciated infant, gasping for air in a hospital bed.
One of the paramedics who took the boy to hospital said Mahmoud died of acute malnutrition.
“We saw a woman carrying her baby and screaming for help. Her pale baby seemed to be taking his last breath,” the paramedic says in the video.
“We rushed him to hospital and he was suffering from acute malnutrition. Medical staff rushed him to intensive care. The baby has not received milk for days, as baby milk is completely absent in Gaza. »
Mahmoud’s death came as the Israeli government – which launched its assault on Gaza following attacks by Hamas fighters in October – continues to ignore global calls to allow more aid to the Palestinian enclave.
At least 29,606 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, while 69,737 have been injured since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel following the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139.
According to the UN, some 2.3 million people in Gaza are now on the brink of famine.
Israel, which cut off all food, water and fuel supplies to Gaza at the start of the war, opened an entry point for humanitarian aid in December. But aid agencies say tight controls by Israeli forces and protests by far-right demonstrators at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known to Israelis as Kerem Shalom, have hampered the entry of food trucks .
When supplies arrive in Gaza, aid workers say they are unable to collect or distribute them due to a lack of security, due in part to Israel’s targeted killings of police officers guarding the trucks sent.
The situation is particularly desperate in northern Gaza, which has been almost completely cut off from aid since the end of October.
Doctors there described the situation as “more than catastrophic”.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said he was seeing “many” deaths of children, especially newborns.
“Signs of weakness and paleness are apparent on the newborns because the mother is malnourished,” Abu Safiya told Tel Aviv Tribune. “Sadly, many children have died in recent weeks…if we don’t urgently get the right help, we will lose more and more to malnutrition. »
The head of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, says there is a sharp increase in cases of malnutrition among children, especially newborns ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/7sCwvI7aMM
– Tel Aviv Tribune English (@AJEnglish) February 25, 2024
Despite the dire situation, UN agencies have been unable to provide aid.
The World Food Program attempted to resume deliveries to northern Gaza last Sunday, but announced a suspension two days later, citing Israeli fire and a “collapse of civil order.” The organization said its teams had witnessed “unprecedented levels of desperation” in the north, with hungry Palestinians mobbing trucks for food.
The agency said it was working to resume deliveries as soon as possible and called for better security for its staff as well as “significantly higher food volumes” and the opening of crossing points for aid directly to northern Gaza from Israel.
The UN has meanwhile said its assessments indicate that at least 90 percent of children under the age of five in Gaza are affected by one or more infectious diseases, while 15 percent, or one in six children, of less than two years in the northern parts of the territory are seriously affected. malnourished.
“The Gaza Strip is on the verge of seeing an explosion in the number of preventable child deaths, which would worsen the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” said Ted Chaiban, deputy executive director of the Gaza Strip. UNICEF for Humanitarian Action, in a press release last week.
“We have been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutritional crisis. If the conflict does not end now, child nutrition will continue to fall, leading to preventable deaths or health problems that will affect Gaza’s children for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences,” he said. he declares.
Before the war, only 0.8 percent of children under five in Gaza were considered acutely malnourished, according to the UN.
“Such a decline in the nutritional status of a population in three months is unprecedented on a global scale. »
