MAN MADE FAMINE

Takeaways from AP's reporting on child malnutrition in Gaza

MOHAMMED JAHJOUH and SARAH EL DEEB
Sat, May 3, 2025 

Wedad Abdelaal and her husband Ammar , feed their 9 month old son Khaled, in their tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Mawasi Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Palestinian child carries a pot of soup received from a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Palestinian women care for their babies at the malnutrition clinic in Nasser hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wedad Abdelaal, whose 9-month-old son Khaled suffers from malnutrition, holds up a can of beans at her tent in a camp for displaced Palestinians in Mawasi Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, May 2, 2025." (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS


KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s total blockade of Gaza is entering its third month, and food and medical supplies in the aid-dependent Palestinian territory are running dangerously low.

Acute malnutrition among children is increasingly prevalent as hospitals hang by a thread, forced to prioritize deadly emergencies from mass casualty attacks. The price of what little food is still available in the market is exorbitant, unaffordable for most in Gaza, where the United Nations says more than 80% of the population relies on aid.

Israel's longest blockade on Gaza, which began March 2, has sparked a growing international outcry. But that has failed to convince Israel to open the borders. More groups accuse Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. Israel, for its part, insists the blockade is necessary to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds. Of the 59 hostages still in Gaza, 24 are believed to be still alive.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond when asked to comment on accusations that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war, but have previously said Gaza had enough aid after a surge in distribution during a two-month ceasefire, and accuse Hamas of diverting aid for its purposes. Humanitarian workers deny there is significant diversion, saying the U.N. monitors distribution strictly.

Here are some takeaways from AP’s reporting:

No food coming in, no way to produce it locally

A lack of supplies means the distribution of food parcels has stopped. Community kitchens, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands for their daily meal, are shutting down one after the other. At those still open, chaotic scenes of desperate men, women and children fighting to get meager rations are common. Bakeries have closed, while water distribution is grinding to a halt due to lack of fuel.

The war has rendered farmland mostly inaccessible, while fishermen have reported being shot at when trying to catch fish along Gaza’s coastline. Looting has been reported at warehouses with few remaining supplies.

Meanwhile, supplies languish at the borders, prevented by Israel from entering Gaza.

Malnutrition stalks the most vulnerable

U.N. agencies have documented a rise in acute malnutrition among children since March. They are finding low immunity, frequent illness, weight and muscle mass loss, protruding bones or bellies, and brittle hair.

Since the start of the year, more than 9,000 children have been admitted or treated for acute malnutrition, UNICEF said. The increase was particularly dramatic in March, with 3,600 cases – an 80% increase compared to the 2,000 children in February.

And conditions have only worsened. UNICEF says supplies to prevent malnutrition, such as supplements and biscuits, have been depleted. High-nutrition food used to treat acute malnutrition is running out.

Nearly half the 200 nutrition centers around Gaza have shut down because of displacement and bombardment.

“It is absolutely clear that we are going to have more cases of wasting, which is the most dangerous form of malnutrition,” said UNICEF spokesperson Jonathan Crickx. “It is also clear we are going to have more children dying from these preventable causes.”

In the pediatric ward

At 9 months old, Khaled, weak and dehydrated, is barely 11 pounds (5 kilos) — half of what he should be. Diarrhea has plagued him for half his brief life.

In Gaza’s main pediatric hospital ward, as doctors try to save her son, Wedad Abdelaal, 31, can only watch and agonize over her four other children back in their tent who have nothing to eat.

“This border closure is destroying us,” she said.

A low-weight baby at 4 1/2 pounds (2 kilos) but otherwise healthy at birth, Khaled began suffering from malnutrition at 2 months old. His mother, herself malnourished, can’t produce enough milk.

“Breastfeeding needs food, and I am not able to give him enough,” she says.

Two of Abdelaal’s other children, Ahmed, 7 and Maria, 4, are also showing signs of malnutrition. At 17 pounds (8 kilos), Ahmed’s bones pierce his skin. He gets no supplements at feeding centers, which serve only children under 6. Maria has also lost weight, but there is no scale to weigh her.

“My kids have become so frail,” Abdelaal laments. “They are like chicks.”

Struggling hospitals

Only critical malnutrition cases are admitted to hospitals, and just for short periods so more children can be treated.

“If we admit all those who have acute malnutrition, we will need hundreds of beds,” says Dr. Yasser Abu Ghaly. “We can’t help many, anyway ... There is nothing in our hands.”

While the lack of food can decimate even previously healthy children, for those with pre-existing conditions and genetic disorders, the outlook is dire.

“They are sentenced to death,” said Dr. Ahmed al-Farrah, head of the pediatrics and obstetrics ward at Nasser Hospital.

The youngest pay the price

“We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza,” said Michael Ryan, executive director of emergencies at the World Health Organization. “Because if we don’t do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes. ... The children should not have to pay the price.”

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El Deeb reported from Beirut.


Hunger and malnutrition are rising across Gaza as Israel's blockade leaves mothers with few options

MOHAMMED JAHJOUH and SARAH EL DEEB
Sat, May 3, 2025 



Osama al-Raqab, 5, whose mother says his cystic fibrosis has worsened since the start of the war due to the lack of meat, fish and enzyme tablets to help him digest food, is being treated at the malnutrition clinic in Nasser hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ahmed El-Sheikh Eid, 7, who shows signs of malnutrition, poses for a photo at his family tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Mawasi Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rahma al-Qadi takes care for her 7-month-old daughter Sama, who was born with Down syndrome and suffers from malnutrition, at the malnutrition clinic in Nasser hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wedad Abdelaal and her husband Ammar , feed their 9 month old son Khaled, in their tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Mawasi Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The little boy is in tears and, understandably, irritable. Diarrhea has plagued him for half of his brief life. He is dehydrated and so weak. Attached to his tiny left hand is a yellow tube that carries liquid food to his frail little system.

At 9 months old, Khaled is barely 11 pounds (5 kilos) — half of what a healthy baby his age should be. And in Gaza's main pediatric hospital ward, as doctors try to save her son, Wedad Abdelaal can only watch.

After back-to-back emergency visits, the doctors decided to admit Khaled last weekend. For nearly a week, he was tube-fed and then given supplements and bottled milk, which is distributed every three hours or more. His mother, nervous and helpless, says that's not enough.

“I wish they would give it to us every hour. He waits for it impatiently ... but they too are short on supplies,” Abdelaal says. “ This border closure is destroying us.”

The longer they stay in the hospital, the better Khaled will get. But Abdelaal is agonizing over her other children, back in their tent, with empty pots and nothing to eat as Israel’s blockade of Gaza enters its third month, the longest since the war started.

Locked, sealed and devastated by Israeli bombings, Gaza is facing starvation. Thousands of children have already been treated for malnutrition. Exhausted, displaced and surviving on basics for over a year and half of war, parents like Abdelaal watch their children waste away and find there is little they can do.

They are out of options.

Acute malnutrition among children is spiking

Hospitals are hanging by a thread, dealing with mass casualty attacks that prioritize deadly emergencies. Food stocks at U.N. warehouses have run out. Markets are emptying. What is still available is sold at exorbitant prices, unaffordable for most in Gaza where more than 80% are reliant on aid, according to the United Nations.

Community kitchens distributing meals for thousands are shuttering. Farmland is mostly inaccessible. Bakeries have closed. Water distribution is grinding to a halt, largely because of lack of fuel. In desperate scenes, thousands, many of them kids, crowd outside community kitchens, fighting over food. Warehouses with few supplies have been looted.

The longest blockade on Gaza has sparked a growing international outcry, but it has failed to persuade Israel to break open the borders. More groups accuse Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. Residents and humanitarians warn that acute malnutrition among children is spiraling.

“We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza," Michael Ryan, executive director of emergencies at the World Health Organization, told reporters in Geneva. "Because if we don’t do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes. ... The children should not have to pay the price.”

Israel imposed the blockade March 2, then ended a two-month ceasefire by resuming military operations on March 18, saying both steps were necessary to pressure Hamas into releasing the hostages. Before the ceasefire collapsed, Israel believed 59 hostages were still inside Gaza, 24 of them alive and still in captivity.

It hasn't responded to accusations that it uses starvation as a war tactic. But Israeli officials have previously said Gaza had enough aid after a surge in distribution during the ceasefire, and accused Hamas of diverting aid for its purposes. Humanitarian workers deny there is significant diversion, saying the U.N. monitors distribution strictly.

A mother wants to help her son — but can't

Khaled has suffered from malnutrition since he was 2 months old. His mother managed it through outpatient visits and supplements distributed at feeding centers. But for the past seven months, Abdelaal, 31, has been watching him slowly shrivel. She, too, is malnourished and has had hardly any protein in recent months.

After an exhausting pregnancy and two days of labor, Khaled was born — a low-weight baby at 4 1/2 pounds (2 kilos) but otherwise healthy. Abdelaal began nursing him. But because of lack of calcium, she is losing her teeth — and producing too little milk.

“Breastfeeding needs food, and I am not able to give him enough,” she says.

Khaled has four other siblings, aged between 9 and 4. The family has been displaced from Rafah and now lives in a tent further north in Mawasi Khan Younis.

As food ran out under the blockade, the family grew dependent on community kitchens that serve rice, pasta and cooked beans. Cooking in the tent is a struggle: There is no gas, and finding wood or plastic to burn is exhausting and risky.

Ahmed, 7 and Maria, 4, are already showing signs of malnutrition. Ahmed, 7, weighs 17 pounds (8 kilos); his bones are piercing his skin. He gets no supplements at feeding centers, which serve only kids under 6. Maria, 4, has also lost weight, but there is no scale to weigh her.

“My kids have become so frail," Abdelaal laments. “They are like chicks.”

Nutrition centers around Gaza are shutting down

Since March 2, U.N. agencies have documented a rise in acute malnutrition among children. They are finding low immunity, frequent illness, weight and muscle mass loss, protruding bones or bellies, and brittle hair. Since the start of the year, more than 9,000 children have been admitted or treated for acute malnutrition, UNICEF said.

The increase was dramatic in March, with 3,600 cases or an 80% increase compared to the 2,000 children treated in February.

Since then, conditions have only worsened. Supplies used to prevent malnutrition, such as supplements and biscuits, have been depleted, according to UNICEF. Therapeutic food used to treat acute malnutrition is running out.

Parents and caregivers are sharing malnutrition treatments to make up for shortages, which undermines treatment. Nearly half of the 200 nutrition centers around Gaza shut down because of displacement and bombardment.

Meanwhile, supplies are languishing at the borders, prevented by Israel from entering Gaza.

“It is absolutely clear that we are going to have more cases of wasting, which is the most dangerous form of malnutrition. It is also clear we are going to have more children dying from these preventable causes," UNICEF spokesperson Jonathan Crickx says.

Suad Obaid, a nutritionist in Gaza, says parents are frequenting feeding centers more because they have nothing to feed their children. “No one can rely on canned food and emergency feeding for nearly two years."

At Nasser Hospital, four critical cases were receiving treatment last week for acute malnutrition, including Khaled. Only critical cases are admitted — and only for short periods so more children can be treated.

“If we admit all those who have acute malnutrition, we will need hundreds of beds,” says Dr. Yasser Abu Ghaly, acknowledging: “We can’t help many, anyway ... There is nothing in our hands.”

The system for managing diseases has buckled

Before the war, hundreds of families in Gaza were registered and treated for congenital defects, genetic or autoimmune disorders, a system that has broken down mostly because food, formulasor tablets that helped manage the diseases quickly ran out.

Dr Ahmed al-Farrah, head of the pediatrics and obstetrics ward at Nasser Hospital, says hundreds of children with genetic disorders could suffer cognitive disorders as well, if not worse.

“They are sentenced to death,” he says.

Osama al-Raqab’s cystic fibrosis has worsened since the start of the war. Lack of meat, fish and enzyme tablets to help him digest food meant repeated hospital visits and long bouts of chest infections and acute diarrhea, says his mother, Mona. His bones poke through his skin. Osama, 5, weighs 20 pounds (9 kilos) and can hardly move or speak. Canned food offers him no nutrition.

“With starvation in Gaza, we only eat canned lentils," his mother says. “If the borders remain closed, we will lose that too.”

Rahma al-Qadi’s baby was born with Down syndrome seven months ago. Since then, Sama gained little more than half a pound (300 grams) and was hospitalized multiple times with fever. Her mother, also malnourished and still suffering from infection to her wound after birth, continues to breastfeed her. Again, it is not enough.

Sama is restless, doesn’t sleep and is always demanding more food. Doctors ask her mother to eat better to produce more milk.

Lifting Sama’s scrawny legs up, her mother says: “I can’t believe this is the leg of a 7-month-old.”

A father's lament: ‘Waiting for death'

Abdelaal's kids fetch water and wait in line at soup kitchens because she cannot. To get there, they must climb a small hill. When she can, she waits for them at the bottom, fearing they may fall or drop the food.

When they do bring back food, the family divides it over several meals and days. When they get nothing, they share beans out of a can. Abdelaal often surrenders her share. “My kids," she says, "are more deserving.”

Her husband, Ammar, has a heart condition that limits his movement, so he cannot help either. "Because of lack of healthy food, even as adults, we have no energy to move or exert any effort,” Ammar says. “We are sitting in our tents, waiting for death.”

The kids plead for fried tomatoes or cooked potatoes. But produce is unavailable or too expensive. A kilo of each would cost her $21. A bar of biscuits costs $2. Canned sardines cost nearly $10 — a fortune.

“In two years, my child won’t be able to walk because of lack of food,” Abdelaal says.

Smiling through her helplessness, Abdelaal brought Khaled out of the hospital for a few hours to visit his family on Friday. They gathered around a can of cold beans. She wishes Khaled’s doctors could give her the treatment to take back to the tent, so she could be with her family.