Starvation and death loom as famine grips Gaza Strip

Israeli blockade of food leaves malnourished babies fighting for life, report Nedal Hamdouna from Gaza and Bel Trew

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Drowning in baby clothes intended for newborns, Siham stares with hollow eyes at the hospital wall, struggling to make a faint cry.

Just one year old, she is emaciated and sick from consuming contaminated water and food since being born in a displacement camp in southern Gaza. Her mother, Ikhlas, 28, who fled Israel’s ferocious bombardment of northern Gaza four times, says she was herself so malnourished she struggled to breastfeed.

With no baby formula available since Israel cut off all supplies to the besieged strip, Ikhlas was forced to feed Siham regular milk, which only made her daughter sicker.

“We used to eat bread, sometimes with thyme. Now we are dependent on rice and pasta because we ran out of flour,” she tells The Independent from the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital in Gaza City, where medics are fighting to keep Siham alive.

“All the people of Gaza are living in a state of famine. If the crossings remain closed, I fear I will lose my baby, as some children have already died in recent weeks.”

Across the devastated strip, families are trying to survive on rice, salt and water – including Wedad Abdelaal, whose three children, including nine-month-old son Khaled, are all suffering from malnutrition in a tent in al-Mawasi, along Gaza’s coast.

In the wake of the collapse of a truce in Gaza in March, Israel imposed a total ban on aid to the enclave, which is just 25 miles long and home to more than 2 million people. Israel justified its actions by accusing the Hamas militant group of stealing aid to “feed its war machine”.