'We are dead in the shape of the living'

Dozens of children and adults in Gaza have starved to death this month as hunger surges. Wafaa Shurafa, Sarah El Deeb and Lee Keath, of The Associated Press, report

- Wafaa Shurafa, Sarah El Deeb and Lee Keath, of The Associated Press

EIR Al-Balah, Gaza Strip Five starving children at a Gaza City hospital were wasting away, and nothing the doctors tried was working. The basic treatments for malnourishment that could save them had run out under Israel's blockade. The alternatives were ineffective. One after another, the babies and toddlers died over four days.

In greater numbers than ever, children hollowed up by hunger are overwhelming the Patient's Friends Hospital, the main emergency centre for malnourished children in northern Gaza.

The deaths last weekend also marked a change: the first seen by the centre in children who had no preexisting conditions.

Symptoms are getting worse, with children too weak to cry or move, said Dr Rana Soboh, a nutritionist. In past months, most improved, despite supply shortages, but now patients stay longer and don't get better, she said.

"There are no words in the face of the disaster we are in. Kids are dying before the world. There is no uglier and more horrible phase than this," said Soboh, who works with the US-based aid organization Medglobal, which supports the hospital.

This month, the hunger that has been building among Gaza's more than two million Palestinians passed a tipping point into accelerating death, aid workers and health staff say. Not only children usually the most vulnerable are falling victim under Israel's blockade since March, but also adults.

In the past three weeks, at least 48 people have died of causes related to malnutrition, including 28 adults and 20 children, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday. That's up from 10 children who died in the five previous months of 2025, according to the ministry.

The UN reports similar numbers. The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it has documented 21 children under five who have died of causes related to malnutrition in 2025.