Five-month-old Abdulaziz al-Hourani lies in his bed at al-Ahli hospital in northern Gaza, his small body showing signs of undernourishment.
Weighing only 3kg (6.6lb), Abdulaziz has just been released from the intensive care unit, where he was treated for severe malnutrition.
His mother says she can’t get the food he needs in Gaza. “This is my only baby. He is supposed to weigh at least 5kg (11lb) and I am very worried about his health,” she says. “I can’t take him abroad because the borders are closed.”
Abdulaziz’s story is not unique. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 8,000 children under the age of five have been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition since the war began – of those, 1,600 were severe cases.
Last week, WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had “already been 32 deaths attributed to malnutrition, including 28 among children under five.”
At the beginning of June, the UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, reported that nine out of 10 children in Gaza were experiencing severe food poverty, surviving on two or fewer food groups per day. It said that “months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed the food and health systems, resulting in catastrophic consequences” and that children were “at risk of life-threatening malnutrition.”
Every day, long queues form in front of “Tikkeyas” – small food stalls providing free meals. Many have been funded by better-off individuals in northern Gaza, but the shortage of supplies means their future is uncertain.
For now, this is where some children go to try to get a hot meal, while others walk long distances to fetch water.