In Gaza’s neonatal wards, life begins not with joy, but with hunger and fear. Newborns lie in incubators while their malnourished mothers watch helplessly, unable to feed them. The Israeli blockade has not only decimated homes and hospitals, it has turned baby formula and basic nutrition into forbidden luxuries, pushing Gaza’s youngest toward slow and silent death.

At Nasser Hospital, Umm Mohammed cradles one of her premature twins. “I can’t breastfeed, I’m too weak,” she whispers. Like hundreds of other mothers in Gaza, she has found no formula on the shelves for months. Israel's ban on baby milk and nutritional supplements, in place since March, has dried up all remaining supplies. Doctors warn of irreversible damage, as infants suffer from malnutrition, brain disorders, and immune collapse.

Hospitals are overwhelmed. Dr. Ahmad al-Farra, a leading paediatrician, says dozens of children arrive daily with severe hunger complications. Some suffer from marasmus or kwashiorkor, the cruel hallmarks of famine. At least 60 have already died.

This crisis begins before birth. Pregnant women, denied food and healthcare, give birth prematurely to underweight babies who require care that simply doesn’t exist anymore. Medical staff, out of formula and basic medicine, can do little but watch.

Families search Gaza’s black market for formula at six times its usual price, while aid trucks wait at sealed borders. A few cans make it through, not thanks to the world’s compassion, but despite its silence.

The health system is collapsing. Gaza’s children are dying, not by accident, but by design. Starvation has become policy, formula a forbidden substance, and life itself conditional. This is not a crisis. It is the deliberate destruction of a generation, in plain sight.