'Let The Children Eat': Israel Is Starving Gaza To Death, Doctors And Experts Warn

Islam Hajjaj feeds her 6-year-old malnourished daughter Najwa, at a shelter in central Gaza City, on May 11. Israel's total blockade of food and humanitarian aid has led to Palestinian children facing mass starvation.(Warning: Distressing photos and graphic medical details throughout.)Dr. Razan Al-Nahhas just returned to Chicago from a volunteering stint in Gaza, where for two months the emergency physician mostly treated visibly malnourished Palestinian children at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital ― an increasingly common sight since Israel began attacking the territory 19 months ago, and stopped all food and aid deliveries 70 days ago.Al-Nahhas said she initially felt confused when she didn’t see improvement in the health of her paediatric patients within days, or even weeks, of treatment. The doctor recalled a 9-year-old girl who came in with lung injuries from an explosion, and was extubated days into being at the ICU. “Anywhere else, she would have been out of the ICU within a few days. She was intubated and extubated and intubated and extubated, I think four or five times,” she told HuffPoston Thursday. “When I left [Gaza], she was still in the ICU. She had been there for almost three weeks. And this was a consistent theme I was experiencing with patients that I would see in the ER.”The doctor realised that paediatric patients were not improving because they are severely malnourished and dehydrated ― lacking the carbohydrates for energy, the fats to reduce inflammation, and the protein to build and repair tissue, skin and muscles.Al-Nahhas was hardly the only doctor to see how Gaza’s dire starvation crisis is helping fuel the genocide that health care workers, aid groups, world leaders and human rights organisationshave accused Israel of committing. Amid a decimated health care systemwhose hospitals are routinely under siege, doctors in Gaza are treating both victims of direct military attacks as well as the children and pregnant women whose wounds and recoveries are disproportionately impacted by food scarcity.Suwar Ashur, 5 months, is being treated for malnutrition at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, on May 1. Suwar is one of thousands of children experiencing malnutrition as a result of Israel's total blockade of food and humanitarian assistance.For this story, HuffPost heard from more than a dozen health care workers ― most of whom are physicians ― who have either recently volunteered or are currently working in Gaza’s hospitals.“I witnessed Gaza’s health care workers handle mass casualty incidents with competence and preparedness that surpasses the best trauma centers in this country,” said Dr. Brennan Bollman, who recently returned to the U.S. from volunteering in Gaza. “But they cannot heal people without supplies and medicines. And no matter how skilled they are in caring for the horrific wounds caused by bombs, the human body cannot heal without food.”Ten weeks ago, Israel launched its blockade preventing all aid ― including food, water, shelter and medical supplies ― from entering the territory that has been destroyed to the point where the population of 2.3 million is forced to rely entirely on humanitarian assistance for their survival. Scenes documented by Palestinians on the ground show crowds tightly packed at food distribution centres, while difficult photos and videos of starving children circulate online.The food and aid scarcity has doctors and experts begging for Israel to reopen Gaza’s humanitarian corridors before more Palestinian families starve to death. More than 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition since the beginning of the year, according to UNICEF, with hundreds more unable to access help due to displacement. At least 57 children have died from the effects of malnutrition since the blockade began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.“I’ve seen children who are dying from starvation. I will tell you, children who die from starvation do not even cry toward the end, they don’t have the energy,” said Dr. Mohammed Kuziez, a paediatrician who volunteered in Gaza. “And eventually their heart rate just slows down until their heart eventually gives out.” Children who die from starvation do not even cry toward the end, they don't have the energy.Dr. Mohammed KuziezThe World Food Program’s rations ran out weeks ago, and the World Central Kitchen closed most of its community soup kitchens because it has no more food. The World Health Organization only has enough supplies to treat 500 children with acute malnutrition ― “a fraction of the urgent need,” Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative in Palestine, said on Tuesday.“Believe it or not, people no longer care about bombs, rockets or even death. What consumes them now is food, how to find it, how to feed their children,” said Areej, a member of aid group Mercy Corps in Gaza who remains anonymous out of safety concerns. “It’s impossible to describe how hard life has become. People walk around in a daze, dizzy from malnutrition and despair.”Food security experts backed by the United Nations said on Monday that 1 in 5 people in Gaza ― about 500,000 people ― are facing starvation, while an additional million can barely find food. Palestinians will experience a full-blown famine before the fall if Israel continues its aid blockade and carries out its planned large-scale invasion, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s new report.Three indicators of famine must rise above specific thresholds before qualifying as IPC5, the group’s most severe rating: food consumption, acute malnutrition in children and non-trauma mortality, primarily from malnutrition and disease. Experts stress that Gaza’s lack of a formal famine label from the IPC does not mean the people in the region aren’t already starving, nor does it mean governments should wait to act until such a label is given.“We are seeing … children who cannot get even one full meal a day, and mothers forced to split one piece of bread among five kids. People walk for hours just to reach food distribution points, and many go back empty-handed because there simply isn’t enough,” said Rana Soboh, nutrition officer in North Gaza for aid group MedGlobal. “We are seeing children with wasted bodies and swollen bellies from malnutrition.”Jihad Saad sits at the Al-Rantisi Children's Hospital in Gaza City, on May 4. Saad is one of dozens of children inside the hospital suffering from severe malnutrition due to Israel's total blockade of food and aid.COGAT, the Israeli agency overseeing Gaza’s humanitarian aid, called the IPC report “alarmist” and “misleading,” claiming it does not account for the “massive volume of aid, especially food, that entered Gaza during the ceasefire.” Data has shown the aid that entered Gaza during the ceasefire earlier this year was still dramatically lower than what was required.“At any given moment at Rafah crossing, there is a lineup of trucks, a convoy worth, that extends three to five miles on any given day. And them being held up at Rafah crossing results in the spoilage of the materials and goods you’re trying to move through,” said Dr. Marybeth Brownlee, whose experience includes field feeding operations in threatening environments.“So even if you get these trucks through, if they were to encounter things that I call bureaucratic warfare ― where crossing through they get to the checkpoint and it’s like, you need to fill out this form in triplicate, and you used a staple instead of a paper clip ― these are things that do happen,” she continued. “This further delays the aid delivery.”The Israeli military’s relentless bombing on Gaza’s people and infrastructure means Palestinians are constantly at risk of injury, sickness and death. But hospitals are either under siege, or lack enough fuel and medical supplies, making it difficult to receive adequate treatment. Al-Nahhas recalled trying, unsuccessfully, to save the lives of four babies killed by one explosion. Bollman witnessed children “severely burned, broken apart, blown open.” Dr. Hamza Nabhan said most of the children he treats at Indonesian Hospital have intracranial hemorrhaging or subdural hematomas. Dr. Ahmed Al-Farah said rockets caused children to suffer burns, as well as injuries to their liver and bowels.“I really think that we’re getting to that point where these people are just going to start dying in the thousands very soon, of starvation [and] lack of access to proper medical care,” Al-Nahhas said.Palestinians crowd together in hopes of receiving a hot meal, in Nuseirat refugee camp, in Gaza on May 13. Israel's total blockade on food and humanitarian assistance has led to the mass starvation of Palestinian children.The doctors themselves also face starvation, working for 24-48 hours straight with, usually, just a little rice in their stomachs. Hospital staff are fatigued, working at a quarter of their capacity while struggling to maintain morale, Al-Nahhas told HuffPost.Al-Farah said that his hospital in Khan Younis asked the community to donate blood to help save lives during mass casualty events. But when staff conducted blood tests, they found that all of the donors were themselves anemic from lack of nutrition.The doctor, who heads the paediatric and maternity building at Nasser Hospital, added that the intense stress facing thousands of malnourished and displaced pregnant women often result in premature births, with many of the babies struggling with sepsis, respiratory issues and congenital abnormalities. If the children are lucky enough to survive infection, Al-Farah said they will still likely develop neurological conditions.“Babies in the first three years need amino acids, need free fatty acids, need essential amino acids, need a trace element, need iron, need everything,” he said. “So we are talking about a miserable situation that affects this generation of Palestinian children.”Severe vitamin deficiencies in starving children can result in what the doctors said are micronutrient disorders like night blindness, anemia, rickets, nerve-related illnesses and scurvy. Kuziez said that people in Gaza were already experiencing vitamin deficiencies because the blockade banned fresh foods like fruits and vegetables. I really think that we're getting to that point where these people are just going to start dying in the thousands very soon.Dr. Razan Al-NahhasSeveral doctors also stressed that malnourished Palestinian children will also experience poor brain development and mental health. Without enough nutrients, children may become nonverbal, find it difficult to concentrate and struggle with information processing. “Our children are suffering from nightmares, memory loss, involuntary urination and severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD,” Nabhan said. “Over 95,000 children are trapped in this invisible agony, wounds that can’t be seen are far deeper than any physical injury.”Children “historically have the ability to heal and recover from things like PTSD a lot better than adults do,” Kuziez said before adding that the trauma they’re facing first has to stop. And as Israel’s blockade shows no sign of opening, the doctor warned that more Palestinians will die from the effects of severe acute malnutrition.“Even if today this blockade was to end, a significant portion of these children are still liable to suffer severe long-term effects and death because of the lack of a strong medical infrastructure,” he said. “Kids who have been starved and deprived, when you provide food to them, develop something called refeeding syndrome. We saw this with people who were freed from the death camps after the Holocaust, that’s how we know about this condition.”Osama Kamal Al Rakab suffers from malnutrition in the town of Beni Suheyl, in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on April 14. Israel's total blockade of food and humanitarian assistance has led to the mass starvation of Palestinian children.U.N. officials have decriedIsrael’s blockade, accusing the military of weaponizing aid to inflict collective punishment on the Palestinian people. Israeli officials announced plans to dismantle the existing aid system and instead move supplies through Israeli hubs under the military’s conditions. The plan was denounced by the U.N. and the wider aid community, saying itfails to meet the minimum standards for humanitarian action.The International Court of Justice recently heard arguments in the case accusing Israel of violating international humanitarian law by blocking the U.N.’s primary agency responsible for providing aid to Palestinians. Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle told HuffPost that waiting for a legal opinion “is really fatal at this point,” and said the Doctors Against Genocide coalition is introducing a medical definition for genocide to highlight the public health emergency facing regions like Gaza.“To think this is happening again ― how could we be repeating the same genocidal behavior of the starvation that was perpetrated?” said Dr. Dannie Ritchie, a Brown University professor whose Jewish father fought in World War II. “This is a humanitarian disaster and crime, and it must be stopped. We need to let the children eat. We need to be able to take care of the families so that they can take care of the children. Let the children eat, let the people eat. Stop this genocide.”

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