[Cairo] Only dozens of aid trucks, several of which were looted by settlers, are what Israeli occupation authorities recently allowed into Gaza to provide relief to two million Palestinians.
After 19 months of the occupier’s aggression against the Strip, and after imposing starvation that has exceeded two months on the vulnerable men, women, and children; to harvest scores of lives from those who cannot find a way out or guidance in the face of a complete siege that prevents the movement of all food aid.
The danger threatens the lives of newborns and young children, and will claim more Palestinian lives unless the situation is addressed by allowing hundreds of trucks daily, not the meager number that neither satisfies nor alleviates hunger – the amount Israel permitted to enter over the past two days.
Gaza is sliding into famine affecting all residents of the Strip, numbering about 2.1 million people, who are now at the fourth level on a hunger scale established by the “Integrated Food Security Phase Classification” report.
The report issued on May 12 to assess the food situation in the Strip predicted that about 470,000 people would starve to the point of “catastrophe” (the fifth level, the worst and lowest in the classification scale) during the period from May 11 to the end of September 2025.
The report provided an indication of another important classification for monitoring “acute malnutrition,” which also has 5 levels, with different areas of the Strip within the second and third levels. However, projections indicate the possibility of some areas like northern Gaza and Rafah reaching the fourth level by the end of next September.
In Rafah, the director of Kuwait Specialized Hospital, Suhaib al-Hams, points to the depletion of 85% of medicines there, then talks about the absence of any food.
Al-Hams tells SciDev.Net: “We don’t have even one loaf of bread, whether for patients or medical staff.”
He continues: “The hospital receives about 4,000 patients daily who collapse on the ground due to emaciation and weakness, and we no longer find blood donors because the vast majority suffer from anemia.”
The medical team faces not only drug shortages and hunger, but the displaced persons’ tents adjacent to the hospital are bombed around the clock, causing various damages to its building, which the team seeks to repair with their limited resources.
UN experts and human rights organizations describe the occupation’s practices as “using starvation as a weapon.”
These practices led to the cessation of the twenty-five bakeries supported by the World Food Programme in late March, and on April 25, the last remaining food stock designated to support kitchens providing hot meals to needy families was consumed, according to a UNICEF statement issued on May 12.
Within the very limited available resources, the organization continues to provide water and nutrition services, according to Jonathan Crickx, Director of Communication at UNICEF, Palestine.
Crickx tells SciDev.Net: “However, our stock of malnutrition prevention supplies has run out, and supplies designated for treating acute malnutrition cases have become extremely low.”
He continues: “At the beginning of 2025, experts estimated that about 60,000 children need treatment, and now the vast majority of children in Gaza face severe food deprivation.”
Crickx fears the consequences of continuing the complete siege and acute shortage of necessary survival supplies; these are matters that “may push food insecurity, acute malnutrition, and mortality rates beyond the famine threshold in the coming months,” also attributing this to “severely limited access to health services, and acute shortage of clean water and sewage networks.”
Objecting indignantly, Crickx says: “There are more than 116,000 metric tons of food aid already in relief corridors ready for entry, an amount sufficient to feed one million people for four months.”
Long-term Health Impacts
“Current famine and chronic malnutrition in Gaza represent a serious and direct threat to children’s health, especially those under five and newborns,” according to nutrition professor Hazem Agha, Dean of the School of Public Health at Al-Quds University.
Agha explains: “Because they leave lasting effects, most notably delayed physical and mental growth due to deficiency of essential nutrients such as proteins, iron, zinc, and iodine, which may lead to stunting, in addition to delayed mental, linguistic, and motor development.”
Malnutrition in children also weakens the immune system, making them more susceptible to fatal infectious diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia, especially in a war environment that promotes their spread, according to Agha.
Agha continues: “Malnutrition of mothers during pregnancy, as well as children during the first months after birth, permanently affects brain formation and function efficiency.”
This statement is agreed upon by Alaa al-Din al-Feqqi, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Faculty of Medicine at Ain Shams University in Egypt, who confirms that the mother’s lack of good nutrition increases the likelihood of premature birth and leaves lasting effects on the child throughout their life.
Al-Feqqi tells the network: “The causes of premature birth are due to placental weakness resulting from the mother’s malnutrition, which means its inability to nourish the fetus and provide it with the oxygen necessary for its life.”
Al-Feqqi confirms that premature babies are more susceptible to death and need equipped incubators to preserve their lives. Human Rights Watch previously documented the presence of 5 children in one incubator due to the disruption or damage of most incubators inside the Gaza Strip.
The long-term effects of premature babies – as Al-Feqqi explains – include “mental, cognitive, and motor complications, and problems related to normal physical growth, so the child becomes smaller in size, weaker in strength, and shorter, in addition to weakened senses and cognitive abilities.”
Al-Feqqi confirms that these effects “will not be erased by allowing 5 to 6 trucks daily, and these effects may continue for decades reaching 50 or 60 years, making it difficult to repair what the occupation has destroyed.”
Path to Recovery
Agha acknowledges the seriousness of current damage due to continued malnutrition and famine, confirming the difficulty of treating it completely, but he sees a glimmer of hope if urgent and effective intervention is available.
Agha emphasizes “the necessity of providing high-energy nutritional supplements rich in essential elements to treat children with acute malnutrition, in addition to providing appropriate nutrition programs for pregnant women and postpartum health services.”
Agha confirms that the beginning of recovery requires ensuring unobstructed access to humanitarian aid, rebuilding health and food infrastructure, and eliminating the sewage problem, which “will not be achieved without stopping the war and requires international cooperation.”
Crickx confirms this approach: “Thousands of children affected by acute malnutrition in the Strip urgently need therapeutic foods, instant milk, and complementary foods.”
Al-Hams directs an appeal to all officials: “The issue is not just famine and malnutrition. What is required now is to stop the waterfall of Palestinian blood. We are establishing proof before God so that each individual bears their responsibility.”
This article was produced through the regional office of SciDev.Net for the Middle East and North Africa region.
