It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, May 04, 2025
‘Cold’ manufacturing approach to make next-gen batteries
Fabrication challenge for solid-state batteries solved through advanced technique, researchers report
Penn State researchers, including graduate student Ta-Wei Wang, pictured, recently published their work investigating the application of an advanced manufacturing technique in battery creation.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lithium-ion batteries have been a staple in device manufacturing for years, but the liquid electrolytes they rely on to function are quite unstable, leading to fire hazards and safety concerns. Now, researchers at Penn State are pursuing a reliable alternative energy storage solution for use in laptops, phones and electric vehicles: solid-state electrolytes (SSEs).
According to Hongtao Sun, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering, solid-state batteries — which use SSEs instead of liquid electrolytes — are a leading alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries. He explained that although there are key differences, the batteries operate similarly at a fundamental level.
“Rechargeable batteries contain two internal electrodes: an anode on one side and a cathode on the other,”" Sun said. “Electrolytes serve as a bridge between these two electrodes, providing fast transport for conductivity. Lithium-ion batteries use liquid electrolytes, while solid-state batteries use SSEs.”
Solid-state batteries offer improved stability and safety when compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries but face several manufacturing and conductivity challenges, Sun explained. For example, the high temperatures introduced in the fabrication process, especially with ceramic-based SSEs, can hinder their production and practical implementation.
To overcome this challenge, Sun and his team used a technique known as cold sintering — a process where powdered materials are heated, treated with a liquid solvent, and compressed into a denser form — to incorporate a highly conductive ceramic-polymer composite SSE known as LATP-PILG. The method is referred to as “cold” because it operates at significantly lower processing temperatures than traditional sintering, instead relying on applied pressure and a small amount of liquid solvent to complete the process. They published their approach in Materials Today Energy.
Traditional ceramic-based SSEs are typically composed of polycrystalline grains — materials made up of hundreds of tiny crystals — separated by grain boundaries. According to Sun, these grain boundaries are considered defects that hinder the transport of conductive ions. To reduce conduction loss in ceramic-based SSEs, Sun’s team co-sintered a poly-ionic liquid gel (PILG) with LATP ceramics to form a polymer-in-ceramic composite SSE, an ideal material for use due to its stability and high conductivity.
The PILG acts as a highly conductive “grain boundary” in the SSE, facilitating ion transport across engineered boundaries rather than through defect-prone natural interfaces. Sun said the team initially attempted to use traditional high temperature sintering to develop their new SSEs, but they immediately ran into problems.
“One of the fabrication challenges of LATP-based composite SSEs is that the sintering temperature for ceramic is very high, to the point that traditional sintering would actually burn up any additives such as the polymer compound before the ceramic could be properly densified,” Sun said. “This is why we had to implement cold sintering, to keep temperatures much lower.”
Cold sintering technology was originally developed in 2016 through a research project led by Clive Randall, director of Penn State’s Materials Research Institute and distinguished professor of materials science and engineering. Its application to developing solid-state batteries came in 2018, when a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Enrique Gomez, professor of chemical engineering and interim associate dean for equity and inclusion for the College of Engineering, cold sintered ceramic composite electrolytes.
According to Sun, traditional sintering requires temperatures around 80% of the melting point of the material, which for ceramic compounds like LATP can easily reach 900 to 1,000 degrees Celsius.
“For this application, we were able to keep our sintering temperatures very low, around 150 degrees Celsius,” Sun said. “This allows us to integrate different kinds of materials into a highly dense form using the cold sintering process, regardless of their distinct processing temperatures.”
By sintering the LATP ceramics with PILG gel, Sun’s team developed composite SSEs with high ionic conductivity at room temperature, among other strengths.
“In addition to improved conductivity, our polymer-in-ceramic composite SSE showcased a very wide voltage window, between 0 to 5.5 volts,” Sun said, explaining that traditional liquid electrolytes have a window of 0 to 4 volts. “The large voltage window of our ceramic SSEs supports the use of high-voltage cathodes, allowing the battery to generate more energy overall.”
For Sun, the applications of this cold sintering technology can someday go beyond improving batteries. He said he believes that cold sintering has big implications for how companies approach using ceramic composite materials in general manufacturing, as well as in more specific industries like semiconductor manufacturing.
“Our next goal is to develop a sustainable manufacturing system that supports large-scale production and recyclability, as that will be the key towards industrial applications for this technology,” Sun said. “That is the big vision we hope to work towards over the coming years.”
In addition to Sun, the co-authors include Ta-Wei Wang, Seok Woo Lee, and Juchen Zhang, Penn State doctoral students in industrial and manufacturing engineering, and Bo Nie, an alumnus of the Penn State industrial and manufacturing engineering graduate program.
The cold sintering process involves taking a small amount of powder material, loaded in the center of the system, and using a combination of heat, pressure and liquid solvent to create a dense bulk material for use in SSEs.
The vegetation in northern high latitudes was likely dense forest before cooling temperatures transformed it into grassland during the Late Miocene —a shift that further accelerated global cooling.
New research reveals that shifts in plant life played a key role in speeding up major climate changes during the late Miocene, a period spanning 11.6 to 5.3 million years ago.
During this time, Earth’s climate shifted from the warm conditions of the middle Miocene to conditions closer to what we experience today, turning forests into grasslands and forcing animals like horses and elephants to evolve tougher teeth for eating gritty plants. At the same time, predators like big cats adapted to hunting in open plains, reshaping life on land forever.
So what caused this major climate shift?
Previous studies pointed to falling carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels and tectonic movements as the main drivers of these changes. However, these factors alone couldn’t fully explain the global climate transition. Now, a study led by Professor Ran Zhang from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, highlights how vegetation feedbacks—changes in plant cover that influence climate—intensified cooling in the northern high latitudes and altered rainfall patterns in lower latitudes.
The findings, published in Science Advances, show that vegetation changes amplified cooling by altering surface reflectivity (albedo) and interacting with water vapor, clouds, and sea ice. These effects were even stronger than those caused by CO₂ decline alone in some regions.
By combining geological data and climate models, the study clarifies the distinct roles of CO₂, tectonic changes, and vegetation feedbacks in shaping the late Miocene climate.
“This research helps us better understand the mechanisms behind the late Miocene climate shift and underscores how vegetation feedbacks can influence global climate—both in the past and in the future,” said Professor Zhang.
Unlike today’s rapid, CO₂-driven warming, the Late Miocene was marked by cooling and CO₂ decline. The study highlights the often-overlooked impact of plant life on climate systems, offering insights for both historical and future climate change research.
Images of a geothermal well located in the area where underground water drains toward Pozzuoli. They show a clear rise in water pressure levels between 2018, left, and 2024. (Image credit (left): Terme di Agnano; image credit (right): Tiziana Vanorio)
Credit: (Image credit (left): Terme di Agnano; image credit (right): Tiziana Vanorio)
Swarms of earthquakes have been jolting southern Italy with increasing intensity since 2022, threatening hundreds of thousands of people living atop a volcanic area known as Campi Flegrei, where the land experiences slow vertical movements. While authorities debate disaster responses and evacuation protocols, researchers may have found a way to thwart the cyclic unrest altogether: by managing water runoff or lowering groundwater levels, thus reducing fluid pressure within the geothermal reservoir.
Through subsurface imaging and lab experiments, Stanford scientists have shown how pressure buildup from water and vapor in the reservoir under Campi Flegrei can lead to earthquakes when the caprock, or lid, seals. The research, published in Science Advances on May 2, shows that the recurrence of an overpressured reservoir was behind deformation and seismicity in the early 1980s and again over the past 15 years, ultimately leading to the identification of the underlying mechanism.
The findings challenge a widely held theory that shaking is driven by magma or its gases rising to shallower depth – when melt from a deep melt zone moves upward into the upper subsurface under the volcanic area. They also reveal how the rate at which water gradually recharges the reservoir influences the rate of deformation and changes in the height of the land.
“To address the problem, we can manage surface runoff and water flow, or even reduce pressure by withdrawing fluids from wells,” said senior study author Tiziana Vanorio, an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
The researchers analyzed recurring patterns and common characteristics in the imaging of subsurface structures and earthquakes from Campi Flegrei’s two most recent periods of unrest. Characterized by land uplift and burst-like shaking, accompanied by rumbling sounds that have become a signature feature for the population, scientists suspect this activity signals steam-driven explosions, triggered when liquid water rapidly flashes to steam during fracturing caused by earthquakes. The study includes data from the unrest of 1982-1984 and 2011-2024.
“We have been looking at something that occurred decades apart, but there are profound similarities in the imaging, which point not only to a cyclical pattern of the phenomenon but also to a common underlying cause,” said co-author Grazia De Landro, a researcher at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and visiting scholar at Stanford. “From there started the idea to work together, especially looking at rock physics. Using rock physics is the only way to say something quantitative about the imaging of the subsurface.”
The Campi Flegrei volcanic area hosts a capped geothermal reservoir beneath the town of Pozzuoli, west of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. The area has been continuously monitored since the unrest in 1982-1984, when the land rose more than 6 feet and Pozzuoli’s harbor became so shallow that ships could no longer dock. After that, a magnitude-4 earthquake and thousands of microquakes prompted the evacuation of 40,000 people from Pozzuoli.
“It’s been a challenge for the last three years. Many buildings have been damaged by the continuous shaking, and some people don’t have homes,” said Vanorio, who grew up in Pozzuoli and was forced to evacuate in the 1980s. “This project is my goal as a citizen now, not just as a geophysicist, because the study suggests that unrest can be managed, rather than just monitored, opening the way to prevention.”
Land that ‘breathes’
Campi Flegrei is an 8-mile-wide caldera, a vast depression formed by major eruptions about 39,000 and 15,000 years ago, which caused the collapse of Earth’s surface. The caldera experiences uplift and subsidence, with the land rising and sinking, even without an eruption. After the unrest in 1982-1984, the area sank by about 3 feet. For subsidence to occur, mass must be released from the subsurface, which can include magma, water, vapor, and carbon dioxide.
Residents of Pozzuoli note the way the caldera “breathes,” emitting fumes and moving the ground, sometimes meters up or down over a short time.
Historically, the uplift in volcanic areas has been widely accepted as being linked to magma-related refilling processes, which assumes magma and/or its gases are primary drivers of deformation and then earthquakes – but this may not always be the case, according to the study’s findings. While some researchers began exploring the relationship between precipitation and seismicity in the last decade, the study clarifies that it’s not the rainfall itself, but rather the pressure resulting from the slow but steady accumulation of water in a sealed reservoir that leads to fracturing – and, consequently, shaking, Vanorio said.
“We know that annual variation in rainfall has been increasing over the last 24 years, so what needs to be monitored is the level of groundwater accumulating in the subsurface, or ensuring the direct channeling of water runoff,” Vanorio added.
A closed system
One notable feature of Campi Flegrei is the fibrous nature of the caprock atop the geothermal reservoir. Fibrous materials are used in engineering for structural reinforcement, as they can deform without immediately fracturing. They can accumulate strain, which in the volcanic system could eventually be released through a sudden eruption of superheated water, steam, and volcanic ash.
The researchers examined 24 years of rainfall patterns, the directions of subsurface water flow, and the process of caprock sealing to understand the recharge of the geothermal reservoir and its pressure buildup. In Vanorio’s Rock Physics and Geomaterials Lab, they demonstrated how cracks in the caprock seal through interactions of the rock’s minerals with hydrothermal water and steam.
To test the caprock’s characteristics, the study authors conducted experiments using a hydrothermal vessel that functions like a tool familiar to many Italians: a moka pot, or stovetop espresso maker. They filled the bottom chamber with brine and the top with volcanic ash and crushed rocks typical of Campi Flegrei, then heated the vessel to the temperature found in the geothermal reservoir. Within a day, mineral fibers formed, and cracks in the rock layer rapidly sealed through cementation.
This creates a closed system that allows fluid pressure to build up until it fractures the surrounding rock. Fracturing from earthquakes causes a sudden drop in fluid pressure as liquid water flashes into steam and escapes. “That produces explosive bursts and booming sounds typical of the area,” Vanorio said.
The researchers applied multiple disciplines to reveal how Campi Flegrei operates as a closed system, including tomography of the subsurface, which De Landro carried out using earthquake records to construct images of the subsurface that can be analyzed like a CT scan.
“Imaging the subsurface through geophysical methods is like an old-fashioned doorbell: It tells us that someone is ringing at the door, but it doesn’t say who it is. Thus, the interpretation of tomography images must be tested in the laboratory – that’s what makes this collaboration between seismology and rock physics so powerful,” Vanorio said.
A new model
Analyses of the tomography along with the location and reach of earthquakes contributed to the researchers’ theory that recurrent rumbling may not be driven by magma refill or emission of gases from the system. During both episodes of unrest, earthquakes began within the caprock at a relatively shallow depth of around 1 mile.
“After the visualization of the temporal evolution of earthquakes you can see a very clear pattern – the earthquakes deepen over time,” said co-author Tianyang Guo, a postdoctoral scholar in Earth and planetary sciences who combined earthquake data from the two episodes for visual interpretation.
If magma or its gases rising to shallower depths were the primary driver of unrest, we would expect the opposite pattern – earthquakes starting closer to the deeper melt region, about 5 miles below the surface, and progressively becoming shallower over time, according to the researchers. Furthermore, magma rising without an eruption cannot explain subsidence following the unrest, Vanorio said. A plausible explanation for subsidence is the observed discharge of water and vapor after fracturing from seismic activity, which naturally releases pressure within the reservoir.
With their new model of Campi Flegrei’s inner workings, the researchers hope to communicate the mechanisms that cause unrest in the simmering system to local Italian government officials.
“I call it a perfect storm of geology – you have all the ingredients to have the storm: the burner of the system – the molten magma, the fuel in the geothermal reservoir, and the lid,” Vanorio said. “We can’t act on the burner but we do have the power to manage the fuel. By restoring water channels, monitoring groundwater, and managing reservoir pressure, we can shift Earth sciences toward a more proactive approach – like preventive health care – to detect risks early and prevent unrest before it unfolds. That’s how science serves society.”
Davide Geremia, a former postdoctoral scholar in Vanorio’s lab, is a co-author of the study.
The Recurrence of Geophysical Manifestations at the Campi Flegrei Caldera
Article Publication Date
2-May-2025
Email mistake reveals secret plans to end research on Head Start and other child safety net programs
RYAN J. FOLEY Thu, May 1, 2025
FILE - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is seen in Washington, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE - The Health and Human Services seal is seen before a news conference with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Washington, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)ASSOCIATED PRESS
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Trump administration could gut research on the effectiveness of child welfare programs, with plans to terminate dozens of university grants studying improvements to Head Start and child care policy, according to a spreadsheet mistakenly made public this week.
The document listed more than 150 research projects under consideration for termination by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It covered grants funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, which says it “builds evidence to improve lives” by helping policymakers evaluate programs that help low-income children and families.
“These grants are aimed at learning how to make programs more effective at pursuing goals like healthy child development, reducing abuse and neglect and promoting economic self-sufficiency,” said Naomi Goldstein, who led the office for nearly two decades before she retired in 2022. “It's hard to see why they would want to cancel these efforts.”
The grant cancellations would add to deep cuts already enacted at HHS' Administration for Children and Families, which plans to close five regional offices and abruptly fired hundreds of workers one month ago. Its staffing has dropped from approximately 2,400 in January to 1,500, former employees say, and the administration has said it will fold ACF into other parts of HHS.
Other HHS divisions, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, have already cut billions of dollars in grants, including those related to public health, gender, race and other subjects opposed by President Donald Trump’s administration. The document released Wednesday marked the first news of plans for the possible mass terminations of ACF grants, although a department spokesperson later said it was only an outdated draft.
The proposed terminations would further undercut Head Start, the 60-year-old program overseen by ACF that supports preschool and services for hundreds of thousands of low-income children. Head Start has faced mass layoffs and a plan to eliminate its funding altogether in recent months. The grants facing termination included studies intended to answer key questions and improve its operations, such as how to retain more educators at local Head Start programs.
The spreadsheet also listed for termination grants worth millions of dollars for first-of-their-kind centers dedicated to better serving low-income Black and Hispanic children and families, located, respectively, at Morehouse College in Atlanta and at a nonprofit in Maryland.
Dozens of grants related to child care policy, child development, foster care, preventing child abuse, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and more were also listed as set for cancellation, reflecting ACF's widespread portfolio.
Those studies help policymakers understand what works, a former administration official said.
“Ending these projects without explanation not only wastes taxpayer dollars, it also threatens the evidence base behind key safety net programs,” said Katie Hamm, who was ACF’s deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development until January. “It’s alarming that grantees and contractors had to find out this way, through an accidental email, rather than a transparent process.”
The information was mistakenly included in an email sent Wednesday to grant recipients at universities and nonprofits by an HHS employee, who asked them to review and update their contact information.
HHS recalled the message only after the spreadsheet, which had a column on whether funding would “terminate” or “continue” for each grant, had been downloaded by recipients. A department spokesperson said the document contained “outdated and predecisional information" but did not rule out that research inside the ACF could be cut.
“ACF is committed to ensuring that government funds are used in alignment with Administration priorities and are in the best interest of the American people,” spokesperson Andrew Nixon said.
Goldstein, the former research office director, said the situation “does appear to reflect a level of haste and chaos” at the agency.
Only 21 out of 177 listed grants were marked with a note to “continue” funding in the document. A small number had already ended, and some were marked for termination “at the end of budget period.
The document didn’t list how much funding in all would be cut, but the office was responsible for $154 million in grants and contracts in fiscal year 2024.
More than 50 universities were listed as having grants terminated. Several other state agencies and nonprofits would also be affected.
A follow-up email told recipients to disregard the spreadsheet, but again asked for updated contact information. One researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation said they were expecting to receive formal notification soon that their grants would be ending. Several other grant recipients declined to comment.
Opinion
Email Mistake Exposes Trump’s Dark Agenda on Child Welfare Programs
Hafiz Rashid Fri, May 2, 2025
THE NEW REPUBLIC
The Department of Health and Human Services plans to end research into how to improve child welfare programs like Head Start, according to an email mistakenly sent by an HHS employee to grant recipients.
The email contained a spreadsheet listing 150 research projects on HHS’s chopping block, including grants funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. The office’s mission is to build “evidence to improve lives” by helping to examine programs helping low-income children and families.
Other research grants under consideration for termination are related to childcare policy, child development, foster care, preventing child abuse, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Over 50 universities were listed as having their grants terminated in the document, with state agencies and nonprofits also at risk of losing funding.
The possible cancellation of these grants comes after HHS already made heavy cuts to its Administration for Children and Families, which is closing five regional offices and fired hundreds of employees last month. In January, the office had 2,400 employees, and now it’s down to just 1,500.
Head Start, which provides preschool and other education services for low-income children, was one of the first programs to be hit by the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze in February, which later ran into legal trouble. The White House then weakened the program with mass layoffs, and earlier this month even suggested eliminating the program entirely.
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.”
___
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.
