By Lee Keat and Mariam Dagga, Associated Press
Khan Gaza Strip’s YOUNIS (AP) Ro a Mashi, age 2 1/2, was found dead on a table in Nasser Hospital in Gaza. Her eyes were sunken in her skull, and her arms and rib cage were skeleton. According to doctors, she had no underlying medical issues and deteriorated over months as her family battled to pay for care and food.
The doctor who received Ro’s remains confirmed the photo her family sent to The Associated Press of her body at the hospital. There is no hunger, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told local media on Sunday, a few days after she passed away. No one was hungry. There wasn’t a policy of starvation, but there was a shortage.
Netanyahu has retaliated against worldwide criticism, claiming that stories of famine are false and propagated by Hamas, which the US, Canada, and EU have classified as a terrorist group.
But this week, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric issued a warning, stating that the levels of famine and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the start of the conflict.
The U.N. says nearly 12,000 children under 5 were found to have acute malnutrition in July including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. According to the World Health Organization, the figures are probably underestimated.
Israel has permitted about three times as much food to enter Gaza in the last two weeks as it has since late May. That came after Israel banned all food, medical, and other supplies for two and a half months, claiming that this was done to coerce Hamas into releasing hostages abducted during its 2023 attack that started the conflict. Although the fresh influx has reduced some market prices and made more food accessible to some, it is still significantly more expensive than it was before the war and out of reach for many.
Better access to food would benefit a large portion of Gaza’s population, but it won’t help the extremely malnourished children, according to Alex DeWaal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University and a veteran of more than 40 years of work on humanitarian and famine issues.
Severe malnutrition causes the body’s functions to deteriorate and essential micronutrients to be exhausted. Refeeding syndrome, which can result in convulsions, a coma, or even death, can be caused by simply feeding the victim. Rather, in a hospital, micronutrients must first be restored using supplements and therapeutic milk.
DeWaal stated that thousands of children must be admitted to hospitals in order to have a chance of surviving. Many of those children most likely would not have found themselves in this predicament if this strategy of expanding the food supply had been implemented two months prior.
Netanyahu claims that a planned second Israeli attack will seize Gaza City and the tent camps housing the majority of the territory’s people, endangering any progress. According to U.N. and relief authorities, that will cause a massive new wave of displacement and interfere with food distribution.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, since July 1, 129 adults and 42 children have perished from malnutrition-related causes. According to the report, 106 children have perished from starvation throughout the conflict. Medical experts work in the ministry, which is a part of the Hamas-run government, and the U.N. and other experts consider its casualty figures to be the most accurate.
The Israeli military claimed Tuesday that the deaths of several youngsters were unrelated to their nutritional situation, citing the fact that some of them had preexisting diseases. It said that an analysis conducted by its specialists had found no evidence of a pervasive malnutrition problem in Gaza.
During his press briefing on Sunday, Netanyahu spoke while a screen displayed images of skeleton youngsters with preexisting ailments and the words “Fake Starving Children.” He made repeated accusations that Hamas is stealing enormous sums of supplies, which the U.N. disputes, and accused the group of starving the surviving Israeli detainees.
Doctors in Gaza admit that some people who are hungry or dying have long-term illnesses including rickets, cerebral palsy, or genetic problems, some of which increase a child’s susceptibility to hunger. However, they claim that when food and appropriate medical care are available, those problems may be controlled.
According to Dr. Yasser Abu Ghali, head of Nasser’s pediatrics unit, these cases quickly deteriorated due to the mounting food shortages. The primary cause of their deaths was malnutrition.
Five of the 13 malnourished youngsters the AP has met since late July, including three who passed away, had no underlying medical issues, according to medical professionals.
Abu Ghali spoke by the remains of 5-year-old Jamal al-Najjar, who was born with rickets, a condition that impairs vitamin metabolism and weakens bones, and died Tuesday from hunger.
According to his father, Fadi al-Najjar, whose thin face revealed his own hunger, the boy’s weight dropped from 16 kilograms to 7 pounds (35 pounds) in recent months.
He pointed to Jamal’s bulging rib cage when asked about Netanyahu’s assertion that there was no hunger in Gaza. “There is famine, of course,” he remarked. Does the chest of a child who is five years old typically appear like this?
According to Nasser’s general director of pediatrics, Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, the hospital treats 10–20 severely malnourished children every day, and the number is growing.
Shamm Qudeih, a 2-year-old who is seriously malnourished, sobbed in agony in her hospital bed on Sunday. Her abdomen was swollen, and her limbs, legs, and ribcage were skeleton.
Al-Farra said that she had completely shed her muscle and fat. Her weight of 4 kilograms (9 pounds) was one-third that of a typical 2-year-old.
Physicians believe Shamm has glycogen storage disease, a rare genetic disorder that alters how the body utilizes and stores glycogen, a type of sugar, and can affect the development of muscles and bones. However, al-Farra stated that they are unable to test for it in Gaza.
Usually, a diet strong in carbohydrates can help control the illness.
Her family joined the thousands of people the WHO claims require immediate medical attention overseas when they requested for medical evacuation a year ago. Israel stopped evacuations for extended periods of time or slowed them to almost a halt for months. The U.N. reports that more than 60 were let to go in the first week of August, suggesting that it is increasing allowances.
This week, Shamm was finally granted permission to leave Gaza, and on Wednesday, she was on her way to an Italian hospital.
According to medics, Roa was one of four malnourished dead children that were taken to Nasser in less than two weeks.
According to her mother, Fatma Mashi, Ro started losing weight last year, but she initially assumed it was just a result of teething. Al-Farra said that Ro a had no underlying medical issues but that the youngster was badly emaciated when she brought him to Nasser Hospital in October.
Israel had lowered assistance entry to some of the lowest levels during the conflict at the time, which was in the latter months of 2024.
Additionally, Israeli military actions forced the family to relocate several times. Finding a clinic to obtain nutritional supplements required time, thus every move disrupted Ro’s treatment, according to Mashi. The family was forced to eat just one meal a day, usually boiled macaroni, but Mashi claimed that nothing she ate changed who she was.
They took up residence in the Muwasi tent camps on the southern coast of Gaza two weeks ago. Ro’s decline quickened.
On Friday, the day following her death, Mashi stated in the family tent, “I could tell it was only a matter of two or three more days.”
Both Mashi and her spouse Amin were thin, with hollow eyes and cheeks. Though not nearly as malnourished as Ro, their five living children—including a baby born last year—are slender.
DeWaal said it s not unusual in famines for one family member to be far worse than others. Most often it will be a kid who is 18 months or 2 years who is most vulnerable, he said, while older siblings are more robust.
But any number of things can set one child into a spiral of malnutrition, such as an infection or troubles after weaning.
A very small thing can push them over.
Keath reported from Cairo. AP journalists Abdel-Karim Hana and Wafaa Shurafa contributed from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.
