Drowning in baby clothes intended for newborns, Siham stares with hollow eyes at the hospital wall, struggling to make a faint cry.
Just one year old, she is emaciated and sick from consuming contaminated water and food since being born in a displacement camp in southern Gaza.
Her mother, Ikhlas, 28, who fled Israel’s ferocious bombardment of northern Gaza four times, says she was herself so malnourished she struggled to breastfeed.
With no baby formula available since Israel cut off all supplies to the besieged Strip, Ikhlas was forced to feed Siham regular milk, which only made her daughter sicker.
“We used to eat bread, sometimes with thyme. Now we are dependent on rice and pasta because we ran out of flour,” she tells The Independent from the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital (PFBS) in Gaza, where medics are fighting to keep Siham alive.
“All the people of Gaza are living in a state of famine. If the crossings remain closed, I fear I will lose my baby, as some children have already died in recent weeks.”
Across the devastated strip, families are trying to survive on rice, salt and water – including mother Wedad Abdelaal, whose three children including 9-month-old son Khaled are all suffering from malnutrition in a tent in al-Mawasi, along Gaza’s coast.
In the wake of the collapse of a truce in Gaza in March, Israel imposed a total ban on aid to the enclave, which is just 25 miles long and home to over two million people. Israel justified its actions by accusing the Hamas militant group of stealing aid to “feed its war machine”.
But it has forced families into famine-like conditions, and medics on the ground tell The Independent that people are starving to death, children are losing their sight, and babies like Siham may not survive.
And so the United Nations, along with aid agencies and human rights groups, have sounded the alarm about the crisis and called on the international community to take immediate action.
Donald Trump is due to visit to the Middle East next week—his first major international trip since resuming office in January. He is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, mostly to discuss arms and trade deals, though reports suggest he may also attempt to broker a Gaza deal.
Ahead of the trip, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said a US-backed plan for distributing aid into Gaza would take effect soon, claiming “several partners have already committed to the aid arrangement”, but declined to name them, leaving rights groups sceptical.
But pressure is growing for an end to the blockade. This week UN experts went as far as to warn Israel’s allies—including the UK—that continued political and material support, especially arms transfers, to Israel “risks complicity in genocide and other serious international crimes.”
Amnesty International said this month that the ongoing two-month aid ban amounts to “genocide in action”, urging the international community to take immediate steps, including concrete measures to pressure Israel to lift the total siege and allow unrestricted humanitarian access across Gaza.
