In the besieged coastal territory, aid workers have issued a grave warning: nearly one million packs of infant formula are currently held at the crossing into Gaza, preventing the most vulnerable babies from receiving the nutrition they desperately need. The organisation reported that the figure of 938,000 ready-to-use formula packs has been held since August. 

Alongside the formula, thousands of crucial items, maternity kits, solar-powered refrigerators, spare parts for water trucks and generators, are also being blocked by the occupying authorities, intensifying the crisis.  Despite a modest increase in aid truck deliveries in recent weeks, humanitarian actors say the volume and range of supplies remain dangerously inadequate to meet the scale of children’s needs. 

Health officials inside the enclave report alarming shortages of medicines and medical supplies: up to a 56% shortfall in medicines and a 67% shortfall in lab materials have been cited. With normal immunisation programmes already disrupted for years, the blockade of life-saving supplies compounds the toll of what many describe as a genocidal war upon a civilian population.