A recent appeal from Gaza’s Government Media Office has sounded a stark warning: more than 40,000 babies under one year old are facing catastrophic risks due to an ongoing ban on baby formula. Now in place for over 150 days, this blockade, critical for infant nutrition, has plunged the region deeper into crisis.

Dr Munir al‑Bursh, Director‑General of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, reports that 133 individuals, including 87 children, have already succumbed to hunger and severe malnutrition. He cautions that without immediate aid, the death toll is likely to escalate sharply.

Describing the situation as more than a shortage, Dr al‑Bursh characterises it as a deliberate deprivation, calling it “a systematic policy of starvation” that constitutes a breach of both human rights and international humanitarian law. He notes that Gaza’s medical infrastructure is nearing collapse, with essential supplies such as infant formula, medicines, and critical relief items in desperately short supply.

The Government Media Office urges urgent intervention from the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and human rights bodies to press Israel to lift the restrictions and allow humanitarian access. “Every day of delay costs more innocent lives,” the statement insists.

The appeal follows nearly two years, 661 days, of siege, under which more than 20,000 children have died, and tens of thousands have been wounded, orphaned or displaced. Many families now reside in makeshift shelters or ruined buildings, without adequate food, clean water or medical care.

From a Palestinian perspective, the infant formula ban represents not just a humanitarian crisis, but a strategic assault on society’s youngest and most defenceless. The international community, campaigners warn, must act now before thousands more infants are lost to sheer neglect.