In Gaza, where war has shattered every pillar of normal life, even hospitals—once sanctuaries of healing—have become barren and broken. According to UNICEF, paediatric and neonatal units across the Strip are now operating without essential medical equipment, pushing Gaza’s youngest and most vulnerable to the edge of survival.

As Israel’s siege continues to tighten, access to lifesaving aid remains blocked. Thousands of humanitarian packages are stuck at the border, held back while children inside Gaza grow weaker by the hour. UNICEF has sounded the alarm repeatedly, warning that the current level of obstruction will only deepen the crisis of malnutrition and disease, and lead to even more preventable deaths among children.

There is barely enough infant formula to feed 400 babies for just one month—while tens of thousands are in need. The situation is made worse by the closure of malnutrition treatment centres, many of which have been forced to shut down due to airstrikes or forced evacuations. Since mid-March, 15% of these vital centres have gone dark.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has described the ongoing blockade as more suffocating than at any point since the beginning of the war in October. Over 420,000 Palestinians have been newly displaced in just a few weeks, fleeing bombardments with nowhere safe to turn.

Gaza’s children are not dying from lack of technology or knowledge—they are dying because the world refuses to act. Their survival depends not on miracles, but on the urgent lifting of the blockade and the delivery of aid already waiting to enter. Every hour of silence costs another young life.