As baby formula dries up, time is running out for Gaza newborns

Doctors and mothers say babies in Gaza may die without more formula. They blame Israel's blockade, as Mariam Dagga and Samy Magdy, of the Associated Press, report

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SEHAM Fawzy Khodeir watches as her son lies inside a dilapidated incubator, and listens to his faint cry, mixed with the muted sound of the equipment.

The mother-of-six is increasingly concerned about the survival of Hisham al-Lahham, who is just days old, breathing with the help of equipment and being fed through a tube in his tiny nose.

Most alarming is that the medical-grade formula he needs to survive is running out.

"There is no milk," the 24-year-old mother told the Associated Press. He needs it "to get better, to live and to see life."

Hisham is among 580 premature babies at risk of death from starvation across the war-battered Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Khodeir and others blame Israel's blockade for the plight of their children. Doctors say that, although some formula has been delivered, the situation is dire. Their desperation comes as the war in Gaza has been overshadowed by the Israel-Iran war.

"These babies have no time - and no voice," said Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatrics and obstetrics department at Nasser Hospital, the main medical facility still partially functional in southern Gaza.

Khodeir’s son is one of 10 babies in incubators at Nasser’s neonatal intensive care unit. Last week, Dr al-Farah rang the alarm, saying the hospital’s stock of medical-grade formula was "completely depleted."

He said the tiny babies who relied on it would face "an avoidable disaster" in two to three days.

His pleas were answered, in part, by the delivery of 20 boxes of formula sent over the weekend by a US aid group, Rahma Worldwide. The new delivery is enough to cover the needs for the 10 infants for up to two weeks, Dr al-Farah said.

However, he expressed concern about future deliveries, saying that it wasn't guaranteed that more formula would be allowed into Gaza.

"This is not enough at all," he said.