Malnutrition reaches new heights in Gaza, children most affected
"These heartbreaking cases were not caused by direct bombing but by starvation, the lack of baby formula and the absence of basic healthcare," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Ziad Musleh, a 45-year-old father displaced from Gaza's north to the central city of Nuseirat, told AFP: "We are dying, our children are dying and we can't do anything to stop it."
"Our children cry and scream for food. They go to sleep in pain, in hunger, with empty stomachs. There is absolutely no food.
"And if by chance a small amount appears in the market, the prices are outrageous -- no one can afford it."
At a food distribution site in a UN-school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat on Sunday, children entertained themselves by banging on their plates as they waited for their turn.
Several of them had faces stretched thin by hunger, an AFP journalist reported.
Umm Sameh Abu Zeina, whose cheekbones protruded from her thin face as she waited for food in Nuseirat, said she had lost 35 kilograms (77 pounds).
"We do not eat enough. I don't eat, I leave the food I receive for my daughter," she said, adding that she had a range of health conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
Depleted stocks
Gazans as well as the UN and aid organisations frequently complain that depleted stocks have sent prices skyrocketing for what little food is available in the markets.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) warned in early July that the price of flour for bread was 3,000 times more expensive than before the war began more than 21 months ago.
WFP director Carl Skau, who visited Gaza City in early July, described the situation as "the worst I've ever seen".
"A father I met had lost 25 kilograms in the past two months. People are starving, while we have food just across the border," he said in a statement.
After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on March 2, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May.
As stocks accumulated during the ceasefire gradually depleted, the Palestinian territory experienced the worst shortages since the start of the war.
"Our kitchens are empty; they are now serving hot water with a bit of pasta floating in it," said Skau.
-'I'm always hungry' -
The effects of malnutrition on children and pregnant women can be particularly dire.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said last week that its teams are seeing the highest number of malnutrition cases ever recorded by its teams in Gaza.
"Due to widespread malnutrition among pregnant women and poor water and sanitation levels, many babies are being born prematurely," said Joanne Perry, an MSF doctor in Gaza.
"Our neonatal intensive care unit is severely overcrowded, with four to five babies sharing a single incubator."
Amina Wafi, a 10-year-old girl from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, said she thinks of food constantly.
"I'm always hungry. I always tell my father, 'I want food', and he promises he'll bring me something but there is none, and he simply can't," she told AFP.
MSF said that patients at its Gaza clinics do not heal properly from their wounds due to protein deficiency, and that the lack of food causes infections to last longer than they would in healthy individuals.
Hamas's 2023 attack led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 58,895 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry. The UN considers these figures to be reliable.
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France 24
7 hours ago
- France 24
Hungry and exhausted, AFP journalists document Gaza war
Palestinian text, photo and video journalists working for the international news agency said desperate hunger and lack of clean water is making them ill and exhausted. Some have even had to cut back on their coverage of the war, now in its 22nd month, with one journalist saying "we have no energy left due to hunger". The United Nations in June condemned what it claimed was Israel's "weaponisation of food" in Gaza and called it a war crime, as aid agencies urge action and warnings about malnutrition multiply. Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid. Witnesses and Gaza's civil defence agency, however, have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing on aid seekers, with the UN saying the military had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since late May. 'We have no energy' Bashar Taleb, 35, is one of four AFP photographers in Gaza who were shortlisted for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize earlier this year. He lives in the bombed-out ruins of his home in Jabalia al-Nazla, in northern Gaza. "I've had to stop working multiple times just to search for food for my family and loved ones," he said. "I feel for the first time utterly defeated emotionally. "I've tried so much, knocked on many doors to save my family from starvation, constant displacement and persistent fear but so far to no avail." Another Pulitzer nominee, Omar al-Qattaa, 35, is staying in the remains of his wife's family's home after his own apartment was destroyed. "I'm exhausted from carrying heavy cameras on my shoulders and walking long distances," he said. "We can't even reach coverage sites because we have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food." Qattaa relies on painkillers for a back complaint, but said basic medicines were not available in pharmacies, and the lack of vitamins and nutritious food have added to his difficulties. The constant headaches and dizziness he has suffered due to lack of food and water have also afflicted AFP contributor Khadr Al-Zanoun, 45, in Gaza City, who said he has even collapsed because of it. "Since the war began, I've lost about 30 kilos (66 pounds) and become skeletal compared to how I looked before the war," he said. "I used to finish news reports and stories quickly. Now I barely manage to complete one report per day due to extreme physical and mental fatigue and near-delirium." Worse, though, was the effect on his family, he said. "They're barely hanging on," he added. 'Hunger has shaken my resolve' Eyad Baba, another photojournalist, was displaced from his home in Rafah, in the south, to a tent in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, where the Israeli military this week began ground operations for the first time. But he could not bear life in the sprawling camp, so he instead rented an apartment at an inflated price to try to at least provide his family some comfort. Baba, 47, has worked non-stop for 14 months, away from his family and friends, documenting the bloody aftermath of bullets and bombs, and the grief that comes with it. Hardest to deal with, though, is the lack of food, he said. "I can no longer bear the hunger. Hunger has reached my children and has shaken my resolve," he added. "We've psychologically endured every kind of death during our press coverage. Fear and the sense of looming death accompany us wherever we work or live." Working as a journalist in Gaza is to work "under the barrel of a gun", he explained, but added: "The pain of hunger is sharper than the fear of bombing. "Hunger robs you of focus, of the ability to think amid the horrors of war." 'Living the catastrophe' The director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, warned on Tuesday that Gaza was heading towards "alarming numbers of deaths" due to lack of food, revealing that 21 children had died from malnutrition and starvation in the last three days. AFP text journalist Ahlam Afana, 30, said an exhausting "cash crisis" -- from exorbitant bank charges and sky-high prices for what food is available -- was adding to the issue. Cash withdrawals carry fees of up to 45 percent, said Zanoun, with high prices for fuel -- where it is available -- making getting around by car impossible, even if the streets were not blocked by rubble. "Prices are outrageous," said Afana. "A kilo of flour sells for 100–150 shekels ($30-45), beyond our ability to buy even one kilo a day. "Rice is 100 shekels, sugar is over 300 shekels, pasta is 80 shekels, a litre of oil is 85–100 shekels, tomatoes 70–100 shekels. Even seasonal fruits now -- grapes, figs -- cost 100 shekels per kilo. "We can't afford them. I don't even remember how they taste." Afana said she keeps working from a worn-out tent in intense heat that can reach more than 30C, but going days without food and only some water makes it a struggle. "I move slowly, unlike before," she said. "The danger isn't just the bombing. Hunger is slowly killing our bodies and threatening our ability to carry on. "Now, I'm not just reporting the news. I'm living the catastrophe and documenting it at the same time." 'I prefer death over this life' Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on July 8 that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Video journalist Yousef Hassouna, 47, said the loss of colleagues, friends and family had tested him as a human being "in every possible way". But despite "a heavy emptiness", he said he carries on. "Every frame I capture might be the last trace of a life buried beneath the earth," he added. "In this war, life as we know it has become impossible." Zuheir Abu Atileh, 60, worked at AFP's Gaza office, and shared the experience of his journalist colleagues, calling the situation "catastrophic". "I prefer death over this life," he said. "We have no strength left; we're exhausted and collapsing. Enough is enough."
France 24
10 hours ago
- France 24
Gaza hospital says 21 children dead from malnutrition and starvation
Gaza's population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points. "Twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip," Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, told reporters. The doctor said the deaths had been recorded at multiple hospitals during the past 72 hours. The announcement came just hours after Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes had killed 15 people, after the World Health Organization said Israel attacked its facilities amid expanding ground operations. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes on the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50. Authorities in the Hamas-run territory say more than 59,000 people have been killed during the 21-month war. Most of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once during the conflict and the Al-Shati camp -- on the Mediterranean coast -- hosts thousands of people displaced from the north in tents and makeshift shelters. Raed Bakr, 30, lives with his three children and said he heard "a massive explosion" at about 1:40 am on Tuesday (2240 GMT Monday), which blew their tent away. "I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke and body parts flying through the air, dirt everywhere. The children were screaming," Bakr, whose wife was killed last year, told AFP. Reports of the latest death toll came as the Roman Catholic church's most senior cleric in the Holy Land said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "morally unacceptable". "We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal," Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told a news conference in Jerusalem after visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory. New ground operations His visit came after an Israeli army strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza killed three people last week, prompting Pope Leo XIV to condemn the "barbarity" of the war and the blind "use of force". The World Health Organization too sharply criticised the Israeli military. The UN agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused troops of entering its staff residence, and forcing women and children to evacuate, as they handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday evening warned that "the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing" in Gaza, and that there were growing reports of children and adults with malnutrition. The latest criticism of Israel came as its forces expanded ground operations in Deir el-Balah following intense shelling of the area in central Gaza on Monday. The Israeli military had earlier ordered residents to leave, warning of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated. The civil defence agency's Bassal said two people were killed in Deir el-Balah. The Israeli military said later its troops "identified shots being fired toward them in the Deir al-Balah area, and responded toward the area from which the shooting originated". "The (army) will not refrain from operating in areas where terrorist activity threatens the security of the State of Israel," it said in a statement. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe. Some 30,000 were living in displacement sites. AFP footage from central Gaza showed a large plume of smoke rising over Deir el-Balah while a surveillance drone was heard buzzing overhead. OCHA said nearly 88 percent of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space. Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's 2023 attack, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. © 2025 AFP
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Malnutrition reaches new heights in Gaza, children most affected
Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP it has noted a rising number of infant deaths caused by "severe hunger and malnutrition", reporting at least three such deaths in the past week. "These heartbreaking cases were not caused by direct bombing but by starvation, the lack of baby formula and the absence of basic healthcare," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. Ziad Musleh, a 45-year-old father displaced from Gaza's north to the central city of Nuseirat, told AFP: "We are dying, our children are dying and we can't do anything to stop it." "Our children cry and scream for food. They go to sleep in pain, in hunger, with empty stomachs. There is absolutely no food. "And if by chance a small amount appears in the market, the prices are outrageous -- no one can afford it." At a food distribution site in a UN-school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat on Sunday, children entertained themselves by banging on their plates as they waited for their turn. Several of them had faces stretched thin by hunger, an AFP journalist reported. Umm Sameh Abu Zeina, whose cheekbones protruded from her thin face as she waited for food in Nuseirat, said she had lost 35 kilograms (77 pounds). "We do not eat enough. I don't eat, I leave the food I receive for my daughter," she said, adding that she had a range of health conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes. Depleted stocks Gazans as well as the UN and aid organisations frequently complain that depleted stocks have sent prices skyrocketing for what little food is available in the markets. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) warned in early July that the price of flour for bread was 3,000 times more expensive than before the war began more than 21 months ago. WFP director Carl Skau, who visited Gaza City in early July, described the situation as "the worst I've ever seen". "A father I met had lost 25 kilograms in the past two months. People are starving, while we have food just across the border," he said in a statement. After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on March 2, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May. As stocks accumulated during the ceasefire gradually depleted, the Palestinian territory experienced the worst shortages since the start of the war. "Our kitchens are empty; they are now serving hot water with a bit of pasta floating in it," said Skau. -'I'm always hungry' - The effects of malnutrition on children and pregnant women can be particularly dire. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said last week that its teams are seeing the highest number of malnutrition cases ever recorded by its teams in Gaza. "Due to widespread malnutrition among pregnant women and poor water and sanitation levels, many babies are being born prematurely," said Joanne Perry, an MSF doctor in Gaza. "Our neonatal intensive care unit is severely overcrowded, with four to five babies sharing a single incubator." Amina Wafi, a 10-year-old girl from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, said she thinks of food constantly. "I'm always hungry. I always tell my father, 'I want food', and he promises he'll bring me something but there is none, and he simply can't," she told AFP. MSF said that patients at its Gaza clinics do not heal properly from their wounds due to protein deficiency, and that the lack of food causes infections to last longer than they would in healthy individuals. Hamas's 2023 attack led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 58,895 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry. The UN considers these figures to be reliable.
