Another Two Babies Starve to Death in Gaza, as Aid Remains Blocked.
In the latest tragedy of Gaza’s deepening humanitarian crisis, two more Palestinian infants have died from malnutrition, bringing the number of people killed by starvation in the enclave to over 120—more than 80 of them children.
According to medical sources, one of the babies, Hood Arafat, was just seven days old. He died from a lack of milk at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Earlier that day, a six-month-old girl, Zainab Ahmed Abu Haleeb, died at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, also from hunger.
Doctors say these deaths are part of a horrifying trend in Gaza, where aid is still blocked, food and formula are nearly nonexistent, and the Israeli blockade continues despite urgent global warnings.
“Children are the most vulnerable in famine conditions,” said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, director of the children’s hospital in Khan Younis. “They cannot survive long without food.”
He warned that if crossings are not immediately opened to allow food and medical aid into Gaza, mass child deaths are inevitable.
In the past 24 hours alone, five people have died from starvation. Hospitals say they are receiving malnourished children and wounded patients every day, but doctors themselves are going hungry, dizzy, and faint from lack of food. Medical supplies have run out, and many patients are simply turned away.
“We’re watching children die, and we can’t do anything,” said one doctor, choking back tears.
Gaza’s Government Media Office has issued a dire warning: 100,000 children under the age of two, including 40,000 babies, are on the brink of death due to no access to baby formula or proper nutrition.
Some mothers have been feeding their babies water—not out of neglect, but because they have no other choice.
“We are witnessing a slow, deliberate mass killing of infants,” said the government’s statement. “The Israeli occupation’s starvation policy is killing them silently.”
While starvation claims lives, the Israeli military continues to bomb Gaza and expand its ground offensive. In the last 24 hours, Israeli forces launched over 100 airstrikes, hitting what they claim are “terror targets.”
Since dawn, at least 25 Palestinians have been killed, including 13 people who were trying to receive aid. Civil Defence workers recovered 12 more bodies from the Morag area near Rafah.
Meanwhile, an aid ship named Handala, sailing under the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, is currently in international waters near Gaza, trying to deliver food. Its crew is preparing for a possible Israeli military interception—just like what happened to a previous ship, the Madleen, in June.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “utterly horrifying.” In a newspaper column, he wrote:
“The denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people – to children and babies – is completely unjustifiable. It is a humanitarian catastrophe. And it must end now.”
Starmer promised that the UK is working with Jordan to airdrop food and medical aid into Gaza. He also said efforts are being made to evacuate critically ill children for treatment in the UK.
But many Palestinians say these efforts are too late for the hundreds already dead, and too slow to prevent the next round of deaths.
This is not just a crisis. It’s a deliberate humanitarian disaster, say observers. Aid groups, doctors, and civilians are all warning: without urgent action, Gaza’s children will keep dying not from bombs or bullets, but from emptiness in their stomachs.
At this moment, many babies lie in Gaza’s hospitals weakened, breathless, and fading, as doctors hold them in their arms, powerless to help.
Key Numbers, 120+ people have died from hunger in Gaza since the war began, 80+ children are among the dead, 40,000 babies are at risk of imminent death due to lack of formula, Doctors are treating patients while malnourished themselves and Aid crossings remain closed as starvation spreads.
What Gaza Needs Now, Immediate opening of aid crossings, Emergency delivery of food, water, and medical supplies, Protection for aid ships like the Handala, Evacuation of sick children to receive urgent care abroad and a full ceasefire to stop the suffering.
“This is not just a tragedy. It is a test of humanity,” said a nurse in Khan Younis. “How many more babies have to die before someone opens the gate?”
