Gaza: Nearly 290,000 children in Gaza are now “on the brink of death,” with over 3,500 children under the age of five facing imminent death by starvation, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. The crisis has been driven by Israel’s total blockade of the strip, now in its third month.
Medical clinics are overwhelmed as severely malnourished children flood in. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, mothers lift shirts to reveal hollow stomachs and bone-thin limbs. Some children, like five-year-old Osama al-Raqab, are battling worsening conditions like cystic fibrosis, made deadly by the lack of essential medicines and food.
“The blockade has turned food into a weapon,” read the GMO’s statement. “Over one million children are daily deprived of basic nutrition, while the world watches in silence.”
So far, at least 57 Palestinians have died from starvation, with humanitarian groups warning that the number could rise rapidly without immediate aid. More than 70,000 children are currently hospitalized due to malnutrition.
The situation has pushed Gaza’s 2.3 million people to the edge. Food prices have skyrocketed, leaving what little remains completely unaffordable. Even beans shared in makeshift tents are a luxury.
Israel insists the blockade is essential to force Hamas to release captives, yet aid groups and international observers argue that starvation as a method of war may amount to a war crime.
As the death toll from the war climbs past 61,700—with thousands still buried under rubble—Gaza’s future, especially its children, hangs by a thread.
