In a tent in Gaza, Marwa Abu Deyyah cradles her baby, Mohammed, born into hunger, his life already shaped by deprivation. During her pregnancy, Marwa suffered from anaemia due to the lack of basic nutrition. Now, her infant son is malnourished from birth, with no access to breast milk, formula, or even the essentials for survival.

“There’s nothing left,” she says quietly. “No milk, no food, no diapers. Just crying, and silence when he sleeps from exhaustion.” Her husband, once the family’s only provider, was injured in an Israeli airstrike and can no longer work. They now live without income, trapped in a siege where aid is blocked and shelves are bare.

The blockade of Gaza’s crossings has made basic supplies nearly impossible to obtain. A pack of diapers, when available, costs the equivalent of a month's income for many. Marwa’s plea is simple: “Just give our children milk. That’s all we’re asking.”

Doctors warn the situation is deteriorating rapidly. Nasser Hospital, one of Gaza’s few functioning medical centres, is running out of infant formula. “It’s catastrophic,” said Dr Ahmad Al-Farra. “There are babies outside the hospital who aren’t getting any milk at all.”

According to the Ministry of Health, at least 66 children have already died of hunger. The World Health Organization reports that over 100 children are being admitted to Gaza’s hospitals daily for malnutrition, many of them suffering irreversible developmental damage.

Mohammed’s story is not unique. He is one of thousands of children in Gaza whose only crime is being born under siege. “We sing to them, rock them, feed them lentil water,” Marwa says. “But what they need is milk, and a chance to live.”