The Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza has issued a desperate warning: malnutrition among children has surged to catastrophic levels, causing severe and lasting health damage that will haunt generations to come. The pediatric ward is overwhelmed, with dozens of critically ill children crammed into corridors, while thousands more suffer at home without access to life-saving infant formula.

Dr Ahmed Al-Farra, director of the complex, described the harrowing reality: “There isn’t a single can of formula left in Gaza. If you find one, it’s expired and sold at exorbitant prices.” Families resort to dangerous home remedies, but these offer no substitute for proper nutrition. The medical staff, themselves facing food shortages after the withdrawal of support from World Central Kitchen, are battling exhaustion amid this growing crisis.

Children show symptoms rarely seen in modern medicine: extreme muscle wasting, hair loss, and fluid buildup. Dr Al-Farra warned that the siege has condemned a whole generation to chronic developmental deficits, as vital nutrients needed for brain and organ development remain absent.

Despite Israeli claims attributing child deaths to chronic illness, Gaza’s doctors affirm that starvation alone is killing these children. Cases like 11-year-old Sila Barbakh, weighing a mere 3.5 kg, far below normal for her age, illustrate the brutal reality.

Since March, Israel has banned all infant formula entry, forcing parents to improvise with dangerous alternatives. Hospitals lack advanced treatments and supplements needed to save these young lives. UNICEF and the World Health Organization have raised alarms about the looming famine and its devastating impact.

The Gaza Ministry of Health recorded 10 child deaths from malnutrition in just one day, bringing the total to over 110. UN leaders warn this famine is unprecedented and spreading relentlessly, a direct consequence of the blockade and siege that choke the Strip’s most vulnerable.

Without immediate international intervention to lift the siege and deliver essential nutrition, Gaza’s children face a future stolen by hunger and neglect.