The death toll of children in Gaza from severe malnutrition has climbed to 66, the latest being 3-month-old Jourie Al-Masri, according to Dr Munir Al-Bursh, Director General of Gaza’s Ministry of Health. In a territory already devastated by war, starvation is becoming a silent executioner.

Dr Al-Bursh cited alarming data from the World Food Security Program, reporting that 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza are now food insecure, including 785,000 children without access to proper nutrition. Around 70,000 children are currently suffering from acute malnutrition, with over 1,000 in critical, life-threatening condition.

Since the blockade tightened and crossings closed, nearly 9,000 malnutrition cases have been recorded among children. More than 500 patients have died for lack of access to treatment outside Gaza, their lives cut short by bureaucratic and military restrictions.

Al-Bursh insists that Gaza’s health workers could still save lives if only they were allowed the tools to do so. “If this milk does not enter, death is inevitable,” he said. Holding Israel fully responsible, he condemned what he described as the systematic starvation of infants, a deliberate strategy of slow execution.

He also pointed to a harrowing Haaretz report confirming that Israeli forces fired artillery, not tear gas, to disperse hungry civilians near aid distribution points, killing and wounding dozens. One of the victims was a doctor, gunned down while trying to feed his own children.

For Gaza’s children, time is running out, not just from bombs, but from hunger used as a weapon of war.