PHOTO ESSAY: Starvation attacks the bodies of these children in Gaza
GAZA CITY Gaza Strip AP In certain tents and shelters in northern Gaza emaciated children are held in their parents arms Their tiny arms and legs dangle limp Their shoulder blades and ribs stick out from skeletal bodies slowly consuming themselves for lack of food Starvation dependably stalks the greater part vulnerable first Kids with preexisting conditions like cerebral palsy waste away fleetly because the high-calorie foods they need have run out along with nutritional supplements But after months of Israeli blockade and turmoil in the distribution of supplies children in Gaza with no previous conditions are also starting to die from malnutrition aid workers and doctors say Over the past month children have died of malnutrition-related causes according to the Gaza Strength Ministry though it s not known how multiple had other conditions The ministry part of the Hamas-run administration is staffed by biological professionals and its figures on war deaths are seen by the U N and other experts as the the greater part reliable estimate of casualties Salem Awad was born in January with no healthcare problems the youngest of six children his mother Hiyam Awad announced But she was too weak from lack of food to breastfeed him For the first two months of Salem s life there was a ceasefire in Gaza and more aid entered but even then it was hard to find milk for him his mother mentioned In March Israel cut off all food from entering the territory for more than months Since then Salem has been wasting away Now he weighs kilograms pounds his mother disclosed He just keeps losing weight At the hospital they say if he doesn t get milk he could die she announced speaking in the family s tent in Gaza City Israel has been allowing a trickle of aid into Gaza since late May After an international outcry over increasing starvation it introduced new measures last weekend it says are intended to increase the amount of food getting to the population including airdrops and pauses in military operations in particular areas But so far they have not had a notable effect aid groups say Food experts warned this week the worst-case scenario of famine is playing out in Gaza The U N says the impact of hunger building for months is hastily worsening especially in Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza where it estimates nearly one in five children is now acutely malnourished Across Gaza more than children were diagnosed with malnutrition this month though that is likely an undercount the U N says Malnutrition was virtually nonexistent before the war Doctors struggle to treat the children because multiple supplies have run out the U N says Israel denies a famine is taking place or that children are starving It says it has supplied enough food throughout the war and accuses Hamas of causing shortages by stealing aid and trying to control food distribution Humanitarian groups deny that critical diversion of food takes place Throughout nearly months of war the number of aid trucks has been far short of the roughly a day the U N says is needed The impact is seen majority strongly in children with special demands and those who have been grievously wounded in Israeli bombardment Mosab al-Dibs suffered a heavy head wound on May when an airstrike hit next to his family s tent For about two months he has been at Shifa Hospital largely paralyzed only partly conscious and severely malnourished because the facility no longer has the supplies to feed him disclosed Dr Jamal Salha Mosab s mother Shahinaz al-Dibs disclosed the boy was healthy before the war but that since he was wounded his weight has fallen from kilograms to less than to pounds At his bedside she moves his spindly arms to exercise them The networks of tiny blue veins are visible through the nearly transparent skin over his protruding ribs The boy s eyes dart around but he doesn t respond His mother puts selected bread soaked in water the only food she can afford into a large syringe and squirts it into his mouth in a vain attempt to feed him Bulk of it dribbles out from his lips What he demands is a nutrient formula suitable for tube feeding that the hospital doesn t have Salha revealed At a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in Gaza City Samah Matar cradles her son Yousef as his little brother Amir lies on a cushion beside her both of them emaciated The two boys have cerebral palsy and also need a special diet Before the war their wellness situation was good announced Matar They could get the foods they needed but now all those things have disappeared and their medical has declined continually Yousef years old has dropped from kilograms pounds before the war to kilograms pounds now His -year-old brother Amir has shrunk from kilograms to under to pounds she declared This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors Source
