Children and elderly people most vulnerable as Gaza famine deepens, warn experts
Pro-Israeli activists and Israel's foreign ministry have tried to challenge the veracity of shocking pictures that have appeared in the international media, despite widespread and well-documented evidence of growing and worsening famine under conditions of Israeli restrictions on aid.
One such picture, which was used widely by the international media, including the Guardian, showed a young boy suffering from severe malnutrition, who it subsequently transpired also had a pre-existing health condition.
Experts say that children under the age of five, including those with other health issues, and elderly people, will always be most vulnerable in the circumstances of famine.
In recent days, aid agencies, governments and the UN's food security monitor, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative (IPC), have provided evidence of increasing starvation, in particular among children under five.
Estimates from other recent famines have suggested that the risk of dying for children under five can be twice as high as for adults, with a greater risk for children with health issues. According to the health ministry in Gaza, 154 people have died of hunger since the start of the war, including 89 children.
Complicating the issue, say other experts, is the fact that children weakened by malnourishment are vulnerable to other potentially fatal diseases, especially if they are living in the open and in unsanitary conditions.
Underlying the risk for the young and those with other health complications, Marina Adrianopoli, a technical expert in the field of undernutrition at the World Health Organization, warned of the risk to 'vulnerable children [who] do not have access to services for the prevention and management of acute malnutrition' a situation she said that can lead 'to widespread diseases, malnutrition and starvation'.
'Acute malnutrition is a life-threatening condition in its most severe form, which requires urgent treatment,' she said. 'When a child suffers from severe acute malnutrition, especially when associated with medical complications, this child is at high risk of mortality.'
Adrianopoli said: 'Children with acute malnutrition need to be immediately identified and referred for the appropriate treatment which is needed for their survival. Children with wasting are extremely vulnerable, their immune system is compromised, their susceptibility to infections increases rapidly. Saving their lives and averting avoidable mortality can only happen by providing adequate treatment.'
Earlier this month, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported an alarming rise in malnutrition at its clinics, warning that 25% of the children and pregnant and breastfeeding women that it screened were malnourished, adding that cases of severe malnutrition in children under five had tripled in just two weeks.
Speaking on Wednesday from Deir al-Balah in Gaza, the MSF doctor Mohammed Fadlalla 'categorically rejected the cynical and cruel narrative' that there is no hunger in Gaza.
'Malnutrition is affecting everyone, the sick, the healthy and the old because no one is eating enough. But the people who are most affected tend to be the most vulnerable: children from zero-five, the elderly, those with pre-existing conditions like diabetes,' he said.
The findings and testimony from MSF were amplified this week by the latest alert from the IPC, the UN food security monitor whose data collection and cautious deliberations on determining whether famine exists are regarded as the gold standard on the issue.
An IPC alert on Monday warned that two out of the three famine thresholds have now been breached in parts of Gaza, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Unicef warning that time is running out to mount a full-scale humanitarian response.
The WFP said: 'Food consumption – the first core famine indicator – has plummeted in Gaza since the last IPC Update in May 2025, with data showing that more than one in three people (39%) are now going days at a time without eating, meaning more than 500,000 people – nearly a quarter of Gaza's population – are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger.'
It continued: 'Acute malnutrition – the second core famine indicator – inside Gaza has risen at an unprecedented rate. In Gaza City, malnutrition levels among children under five have quadrupled in two months, reaching 16.5%. This signals a critical deterioration in nutritional status and a sharp rise in the risk of death from hunger and malnutrition.'
The sense of urgency is driven by the fact that the impact of famine on the body proceeds slowly at first, then very rapidly as the body uses available fat before beginning to break down muscle cells, which release chemicals, including potassium, chloride and sodium, and cellular debris into the bloodstream, rapidly triggering more serious health issues, including severe malnutrition in young children.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has tried to suggest untruthfully there is 'no starvation in Gaza'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Heartbreaking': a London surgeon on the trials of operating in a Gaza hospital
Every day between 4am and 6am, Graeme Groom, an orthopaedic surgeon from London, would be woken by a dawn chorus of bombs and missiles. And so began another 24 hours at the Nasser hospital in Gaza, the largest functioning hospital in the territory. Shortly after 8am, the first patients would be wheeled into the operating theatres. Groom and his orthopaedic and plastic surgery colleagues saw on average 20 patients a day: one-third children, one-third women, then men of all ages, their limbs mangled by bombs and guns. Groom, a co-founder of the charity Ideals that provides health services in places affected by conflict, has been to Gaza about 40 times, including four visits since Hamas militants attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. One evening on his most recent trip, just as the 12-hour-plus shift was ending, another emergency was wheeled in. It was an 11-year boy who had lost his nine siblings in an Israeli strike on their family home in Khan Younis. His father, a doctor, was in a critical condition, and later died of his injuries. That night Groom and his team managed to save the boy's arm, rather than amputate it. The boy's name was Adam al-Najjar. As Adam got better, the NHS doctor found that Adam spoke good English and had 'the most angelic smile', which could be prompted by a bar of chocolate from the surgeon's pocket. A few weeks later Adam and his mother were evacuated to Italy. Physically, he was much better by the time he left, Groom said, although it was too early to assess the long-term impact of the explosion on his brain, or the mental scars. 'We could not begin to get a mental health assessment of the effects of losing almost all his family in one bomb.' For every Palestinian child whose trauma captures headlines, there are thousands more whose stories go untold. The UN agency for children reported on 16 July that more than 17,000 children have been killed and 33,000 injured in the 21-month conflict. The NHS doctor recalls seven-year-old Yakub, who, with his older brother, was the only survivor of a bomb attack. Yakub's legs had been broken above and below the knees, the skin and much soft tissue flayed by bombs. 'While I was writing up the operation note … it was just heartbreaking to hear him calling for the mother who was dead.' He recalls two other patients: a mother who was cradling her three-year-old daughter when the bombs exploded. The child lost both legs, the mother's elbows were damaged, depriving her of the use of her arms. She is now regaining the use of one arm. Patients are usually discharged to tents, or improvised shelters in the sand, without rehabilitation. They are malnourished, so wounds heal less well. Infection rates are high and it is hard to keep track of them for follow-up. But it is happening. 'Amazing Palestinian colleagues are doing their very best … [and] without it, the mortality and the long-term disability rate would be much, much higher,' Groom said. The Ideals charity has been sending medical teams to the occupied Palestinian territories since 2009. But never before has it been so hard to bring in supplies. In the past Groom alone brought five large cases. On the most recent visit, his team was banned 'under pain of exclusion, confiscation and possible penalty' from bringing desperately needed equipment such as delicate plastic surgery tools for repairing vein and tissue or orthopaedic frames that allow broken bones to heal. Since the Ideals team first went to Gaza there have always been damaged buildings, but 'absolutely nothing to compare with the apocalyptic destruction that is everywhere' now. All his Palestinian colleagues have been forced to move, some many times. Many have lost close relatives, or most of their extended families. They live in tents near the hospitals with self-dug latrines for toilets. One woman slept in her hijab each night, 'so that if she was killed, she would be presentable', he recalled. 'What was astonishing was how many of them would turn up for work each day from their tents … clean, well-dressed and smiling.' Several appeared to shrug off unimaginable personal suffering. 'When they talked about the loss of family members … they would say 'this is our lives'. I probably have heard that a dozen times,' Groom said of his Palestinian colleagues. Several have also told him they do not want to be known as resilient. They just want the bombing to stop, said Groom. At his most recent visit, from 13 May to 4 June, market stalls had almost disappeared. Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, reported on Tuesday that doctors and nurses were among people 'fainting from hunger and exhaustion', having previously said Israeli authorities were 'starving civilians'. On 20 July, an anaesthetist, who was also a parent to six children, told Groom that he and his family were starving. His children ranging from two to 13 are suffering from fatigue, weakness, cramps and amnesia. They were confused, they were crying, the anaesthetist said in messages to Groom seen by the Guardian. The anaesthetist could only give them salt to lick and water. Groom has relayed what he has witnessed in Gaza to policymakers in Brussels, Berlin and Paris, urging greater western pressure on Israel. 'Everywhere we were met with empathy, very often with tears, but with a sense of impotence.' After he spoke to the Guardian, the European Commission proposed a partial suspension of Israel's participation in the EU research programme, the first possible punitive measure against the Israeli government, which must be agreed by a majority of member states to take effect. Groom had been 'hugely disappointed' when earlier this month EU foreign ministers took no action following a review into the bloc's relations with Israel, 'but I don't think the fight is over'.
BBC News
11 hours ago
- BBC News
'Ashamed' Liverpool care home boss suspended from nursing
The manager of a care home where residents were said to be at risk of malnutrition and dehydration has been suspended from Clare Sullivan told a disciplinary hearing she was "ashamed" of the litany of concerns raised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about the standards of care at Cressington Court Care Home, Liverpool in April home, on Beechwood Road, was put into special measures when the CQC found that people were not bathed for up to four weeks, and that one person had lost more than six stone (38 kg) in a six-month Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) revoked the registration of Mrs Sullivan, who quit her job at the home after the CQC inspection. The CQC investigation rated as inadequate the home, which provided nursing and personal care for up to 56 Local Democracy Reporting Service wrote that the NMC fitness to practise hearing heard Mrs Sullivan, who had been a practising nurse since 2008, admitted dozens of charges against included failing: to ensure a catheter was changed appropriately, to ensure fire doors were able to close properly in residents' roomsto maintain the emergency call bell to complete audits of drug stock. Mrs Sullivan, who had worked in care for more than two decades and became the registered manager at Cressington in 2018, told the NMC panel that when she joined things were "not as they seemed", the home was in a lot of disrepair, the record keeping system was paper-based, and the majority of the nursing staff were agency nurses or self-employed. 'Completely stressed' The CQC inspection found Mrs Sullivan was "completely overwhelmed" and "completely stressed".Mrs Sullivan told the NMC panel she felt ashamed she did not take more action, and had let residents down. She added she was extremely remorseful for any harm that came to residents as a result of her Sullivan also said: "They lost faith in the whole sector. They trusted me, us all, to do our best."We failed them at that. I am ashamed I've become that person…"Mrs Sullivan added: "It's hard enough as it is to leave your loved ones and you expect them to be cared for. It's heartbreaking for them being told that their precious family hadn't been cared for in the best way…"The NMC panel suspended her registration for three months and noted her previous experience without any regulatory concerns or disciplinary action, and could not identify anything which may suggest a deep-seated attitude affecting report added: "You are highly unlikely to repeat your misconduct." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
100 Gaza children hope to be evacuated to UK for urgent medical care
More than 100 critically ill and injured children in Gaza hope to come to the UK as soon as possible after the government announced a scheme to provide those in severe need with NHS care. The government announced on Sunday that it would evacuate children from Gaza to the UK for treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks. While campaigners welcomed the announcement, they urged ministers to move quickly, saying children awaiting urgent medical care in the UK had died waiting, or were forced to be medically evacuated to other countries. 'We have previously had children on the list but because approval takes so long, some of those children have ended up dying,' said Omar Din, a co-founder of Project Pure Hope (PPH) and a healthcare executive in NHS primary care. 'The government needs to move at pace.' Through a private scheme, the charity has brought three children to the UK this year. Now, its efforts will provide a blueprint for the new taxpayer-funded scheme, which will operate in parallel. 'It's not too late in the sense that there are people who can still be helped, there are many children,' Din said. But he added: 'We should have done this much sooner.' The UK's decision to offer itself as a receiving state comes as starvation and famine from Israel's aid blockade take hold in Gaza, where more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated as many as 12,500 patients in Gaza require medical evacuation, and humanitarian organisations have called on more countries to assist. Last month, a charity launched legal action against the government's decision not to provide medical evacuations against historical precedent, and ministers faced increased pressure from more than 100 MPs to act. Charities hope that about 100 children on their existing lists will be permitted to come to the UK, along with a guardian and possibly siblings. PPH has told the government it has between 30 and 50 children who should come to the UK, and the charity Children Not Numbers (CNN) has 60 children in critical need of medical evacuation from Gaza. Charities said there were many people – working in healthcare and other sectors – who were willing to donate their time and money to help. 'We have a thriving private healthcare system in addition to our NHS system, and combined with the government behind them, I think services can be expanded to support a greater number of children,' said Din. Looking to counterparts in Europe and the US, and the neighbouring countries Egypt, Qatar and the UAE, which had evacuated more than 7,000 patients as of April, according to the WHO, Din said the UK government should assist children 'relative to our counterparts'. One child the charity was assisting had fourth-degree burns to 40% of his body. However, discussions with the government over bringing the child to the UK moved too slowly, the charity said, and the child ended up being taken to Italy in June, along with a one-year-old boy with a congenital disease. The charity has also assisted medical evacuations to the UAE and Jordan. 'We've now developed a blueprint, we've got all the resources [and] learning. The whole pathway is there now for you to take and use the full force of government to scale [up] urgently,' said Din. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Last month, CNN took legal action against the Home Office and Foreign Office over their decision not to provide medical evacuations. Welcoming the government's announcement, a spokesperson said 71 children they were assisting had died due to insufficient treatment, medicine and delays to medical evacuations, since they first called on the prime minister to consider such a scheme in November last year. 'This is absolutely disheartening,' said a CNN spokesperson. 'We had to wait around 10 months for it to happen.' The charity said the 60 children it had in critical need of evacuation had their paperwork and medical records ready for final review from Israel's coordinator of government activities in the territories (Cogat). Médecins Sans Frontières has previously called on the Israeli government to allow more patients to leave Gaza, and be more flexible, saying cases faced a lot of Cogat rejections. 'We are ready to go as long as we have the green light from the government,' said the CNN spokesperson. A Foreign Office spokesperson said a cross-government taskforce had been created to pull the new scheme together as quickly as possible. 'We are taking forward plans to evacuate more children from Gaza who require urgent medical care, including bringing them to the UK for specialist treatment where that is the best option for their care,' they said.
