As the siege on Gaza stretches into its twentieth month, the World Health Organization has issued a stark warning: children are now dying of hunger. Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director, described the conditions as catastrophic, man-made and entirely preventable.

Speaking from the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Dr Balkhy condemned the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure, calling it “complete.” She painted a grim picture: filthy, overcrowded shelters with no sanitation, medicine stocks nearly exhausted, and a near-total collapse of hospitals. “People are dying not just from wounds, but from starvation and untreated illness,” she said. “Hygiene is the foundation of health, and it is absent in Gaza.”

The figures speak for themselves. Over 40% of essential medicines and vaccines are gone. Almost two-thirds of medical equipment is unavailable. Yet aid trucks remain stalled at Gaza’s borders, blocked by Israeli authorities. “We’re struggling to get even 51 trucks through,” said Dr Balkhy. “And it’s nowhere near enough.”

This is not a natural famine. It is the result of a systematic blockade imposed since March, with food deliberately withheld from a population of over two million. Children, the most vulnerable, are dying in silence while the world watches.

Palestinians are not starving because the world lacks food, but because their access to it is being denied. Hunger has become a weapon. And Gaza’s children are paying the price.