In some tents and shelters in northern Gaza, emaciated children are held in their parents’ arms. Their tiny arms and legs dangle limp. Their shoulder blades and ribs stick out from skeletal bodies slowly consuming themselves for lack of food.
Starvation always stalks the most vulnerable first. Kids with preexisting conditions, like cerebral palsy, waste away quickly because the high-calorie foods they need have run out, along with nutritional supplements.
But after months of Israeli blockade and turmoil in the distribution of supplies, children in Gaza with no previous conditions are also starting to die from malnutrition, aid workers and doctors say.
Over the past month, 28 children have died of malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, though it’s not known how many had other conditions. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and its figures on war deaths are seen by the U.N. and other experts as the most reliable estimate of casualties.
Salem Awad was born in January with no medical problems, the youngest of six children, his mother Hiyam Awad said. But she was too weak from lack of food to breastfeed him.
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