Click to see full-size image. (The Anadolu Agency)
Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are starving to death as a result of the inhuman siege imposed by Israel with direct help from the United States.
Ten-years old Yazan al-Kafarna, who died in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on March 4 from acute hunger and malnutrition, has became the sad face of the crisis
Yazan and his family were displaced from the city of Beit Hanoun in the northern part of the Strip. He had cerebral palsy and required a particular diet, such as blended fruit and milk, items now unavailable in the besieged enclave.
Over the weekend, photos showing the Palestinian child lying on a hospital bed with sunken cheeks spread all over social networks.
In one video, Kafarna’s father shows a photo of him before the war looking healthy. The photo was taken just a few weeks earlier.
“Before the war he was healthy, he had access to all the food and medical care he needed. When the war started, everything was cut off… this happened to him from the lack of nutrition and him not having important foods,” he said.
Doctors confirmed that Yazan’s death was caused by malnutrition. His tragic case was cited at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly by Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour.
Yazan’s case is only one of many. Just a day before his death, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said that 15 children had died of malnutrition or dehydration at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, the part of the enclave where the lack of food is most extreme.
Doctors at the hospital also “fear for the lives of six children suffering from malnutrition and diarrhea in intensive care as a result of the cessation of the electric generator and oxygen and the weakness of medical capabilities,” Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra, the ministry’s spokesman in Gaza, said in a statement.
The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has called for urgent action, requesting “multiple reliable entry points” to allow them to bring aid.
“Humanitarian aid agencies like UNICEF must be enabled to reverse the humanitarian crisis, prevent a famine, and save children’s lives,” UNICEF’s Adele Khodr said in a statement on March 4.
UNICEF said it was also aware of at least 10 children dying due to dehydration and malnutrition in recent days at Kamal Adwan Hospital
The World Health Organization (WHO) also warned that a growing number of children in Gaza are dying of starvation and dehydration.
A WHO team found “severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed,” during a recent visit to the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X on March 4.
“Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only paediatrics hospital in the north of Gaza, and is overwhelmed with patients… The lack of electricity poses a serious threat to patient care, especially in critical areas like the intensive care unit and the neonatal unit,” he added.
The Israeli war on Gaza began on October 7, following a surprise attack led by Hamas that claimed the lives of some 1,200 Israeli service members and civilians and saw the capture of some 200 others.
By March 6, Israel had killed 30,631 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Strip’s health ministry. More than 72,043 others have been wounded. The ministry noted in its statement that some victims remain under the rubble amid heavy bombardment and a lack of civil defense and ambulance crews.
Despite the mounting death toll and the growing humanitarian crisis, the U.S. continues to show unwavering support for the Israeli war and siege on Gaza.
Last January, Washington suspended support to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, over Israel’s allegations linking the organization -which provides aid to more than 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza- to Hamas.
The Biden administration has also refused time after time to mount sufficient pressure on Israel to allow meaningful aid into Gaza.
Faced with much criticism, the U.S. began dropping emergency aid to Gaza earlier this month. While the step is meant to whitewash Washington, it actually showed its unwillingness to pressure Israel in any serious way over the aid issue.
In its latest situation report, dated March 1, the UNRWA said that an average of about 97 trucks a day had been entering Gaza in February, down from about 150 in January and well short of the 500-a-day target.
Overall, UN agencies and humanitarian groups blame the humanitarian crisis on Israel’s actions, including the closure of land crossings into northern Gaza, ongoing military operations and a complex system of Israeli checks of items bound for Gaza at the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings.
While indirect talks between Israel and Hamas made some progress in recent days, an agreement could still be far. With the U.S. unwilling to pressure Israel over the delivery of aid to Gaza, the crisis in the Strip will only grow worse. Children, who roughly make up more than half of the Palestinian population in the enclave, will face the worst of the crisis.
