The slow death of Gaza continues, not only through bombs but through hunger. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health announced five more deaths caused by famine and malnutrition, among them two children. This brings the total number of victims to 227, including 103 children whose lives were cut short not by explosions, but by the absence of food and medicine.

In Khan Younis, five-year-old Jamal Fadi Al-Najjar became the latest child to succumb. He had been frail since birth, but the blockade stripped him of the chance to live with dignity. Severe malnutrition wasted his small body to half its weight, leaving only a skeletal frame. Doctors at Nasser Medical Complex said that before the war, a child like Jamal would never have reached such a desperate state.

International organisations warn that Gaza is collapsing under the weight of starvation. The World Food Programme estimates that half a million people are on the brink of famine, while one-third of the population has gone days without food. UNRWA reports that child malnutrition has doubled in just three months, and the World Health Organization says nearly one in five children under five in Gaza City now suffers from acute malnutrition.

Behind every statistic is a child like Jamal, whose hunger became a death sentence under siege. Each delay in opening the crossings and allowing aid to flow freely condemns more families to the same fate, a slow, preventable death, inflicted on an entire people.