‘She was a child – a life born into war, who left too soon’

One-year-old Sanaa died in hospital in Gaza last month from malnutrition. Tara Cobham tells the story of her short life, as children continue to die as a result of the devastating conflict

- By Tara Cobham

A one-year-old baby girl has died from malnutrition amid the escalating starvation crisis in Gaza, aid workers who tried to save her have said. Sanaa Mansour al-Lahham never got to know a life without war before she died in a hospital in the territory in July as a result of prolonged nutritional deficiency and a lack of baby formula, according to the charity Humanity & Inclusion.

Earlier this month, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric warned that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest levels since the war began. Nearly 12,000 children under the age of five were found to have acute malnutrition in July, according to the UN - including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organisation said that the numbers are likely an undercount.

On Friday, global hunger monitor the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared that 514,000 people - nearly a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza - are now experiencing famine. Despite widespread international condemnation, the Israeli military looks set to push ahead with the next stage of its ground offensive on the territory's largest city, Gaza City, sparking fears that the health crisis will only get worse. Baby Sanaa's death is just one example of the suffering taking place.

“Sanaa was born during the war,” says one of Humanity & Inclusion’s rehabilitation specialists, Haytham Abu Hadroos, who was part of the team that took care of the infant. “She was a little girl who knew nothing about the cruelty of the world she entered. From her very first breath, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was collapsing day by day. Access to food, milk, or medicine became nearly impossible. From her first day, she faced conditions that no child should ever know.”