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LONDON: Instead of walking to school or playing in the park, Gaza’s children run from bombs. At night, many sleep on bare ground with only a thin sheet separating them from skies lit by explosions. Parents say their children no longer dream of toys but of bread and a warm bed.

While many toddlers around the world are learning to take their first steps and speak their first words, 18-month-old Mohammed arrived at the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital in Gaza City in July “nearly lifeless,” doctors diagnosed.

Under Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid, the Palestinian toddler had lost a third of his body weight. He weighed just 6 kg, or about 13 pounds. Volunteers with MedGlobal, a US-based medical charity, said he was severely malnourished when they began treating him.

As his small body withered, “he stopped making happy sounds, stopped laughing, and instead started crying all day,” his mother told doctors. Amid the thunder of airstrikes and the collapse of daily life, her only focus was keeping him alive.

Mohammed’s case is just one among thousands. MedGlobal found that 16.8 percent of children under the age of 5 in four Gaza governorates are suffering acute malnutrition — a 2,000 percent increase from prewar levels.��

In a report published on Aug. 21, the group said more malnutrition-related deaths occurred in July alone than in the previous six months combined. Today, one in six children under 5 is severely malnourished, compared to one in 125 before October 2023.

The UN children’s fund, UNICEF, said 5,119 children in Gaza aged 6 months to 5 years were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in May alone. This marks a 150 percent surge from February, when a fragile ceasefire allowed more aid into the enclave.

But when Israel escalated its bombing campaign in March and imposed a near-total closure, all supplies — food, medicine, fuel, water, and electricity — were cut off from the enclave’s 2 million residents. It was the longest complete blockade since the siege began.

Already, 100 children have died from starvation since October 2023, Save the Children said in early August, accusing Israel of deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza — a claim Israel rejects, instead accusing Hamas of stealing aid and humanitarian agencies of distribution failures.

“What kind of a world have we built to let at least 100 children starve to death while the food, water and medical supplies to save them wait just miles away at a border crossing?” Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director, said in a statement.��

He accused Israel of “starving children by design.”

Inger Ashing, the group’s CEO, echoed that message in a speech before the UN Security Council on Aug. 28. “The Gaza famine is here. An engineered famine. A predicted famine. A man-made famine. As we speak, children in Gaza are systematically being starved to death.”

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, alleging war crimes that include deliberate starvation. Israel also faces charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Netanyahu insisted in July that no one in Gaza is starving. “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,” he said. “We enable humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza — otherwise, there would be no Gazans.”

On Aug. 22, the UN formally declared famine in Gaza City and surrounding areas. More than a quarter of the enclave’s population faces “catastrophic” hunger after nearly two years of what the UN called Israel’s “systematic obstruction” of aid.

About a week later, Israel’s military declared Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone” and launched another assault on the shattered remains of the enclave’s largest city.��

The toll on children’s small bodies has been devastating. In June, Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said 16,736 children had been diagnosed with malnutrition between January and May — an average of 112 per day.

“Every one of these cases is preventable,” he said in a statement. “The food, water, and nutrition treatments they desperately need are being blocked from reaching them.”

Hunger is compounded by displacement and trauma. Nearly half of Gaza’s displaced population of nearly 2 million are children. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 39,000 children have lost one or both parents in the conflict.��

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates 19,000 are unaccompanied or have been separated from their families — left fending for themselves amid the mayhem.

Some were separated through detention. In January, 44 Gaza children were freed in a prisoner exchange, but dozens of Palestinian minors — including children from the enclave — remain in Israeli prisons as of mid-2025, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF’s State of Palestine chief of communication, who visited the enclave in February last year, said unaccompanied or separated children account for 1 percent of the overall displaced population. But statistics only hint at the real human toll.

“Behind each of these statistics is a child who is coming to terms with this horrible new reality,” Crickx said in a statement.��

He recounted the traumatic experience of 11-year-old Razan, who lost her mother, father, brother, and two sisters in 2023. “Razan’s leg was also injured and had to be amputated,” Crickx said. “Following the surgery, her wound got infected.”

Razan is not alone. UNICEF estimated in January that up to 4,000 children in Gaza have had one or more limbs amputated — without anesthetic or pain relief. With Gaza’s health system collapsing, injured children lack access to prosthetics, antibiotics, and psychological care.

Only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, with just over 1,800 beds for 2 million people, according to UN figures. Bombardments and evacuations have damaged or closed many facilities, and shortages of medicine, equipment, and fuel severely restrict care.

The collapse of infrastructure has also fueled disease. Oxfam says waterborne illnesses have risen nearly 150 percent in recent months. With only 127 of UNICEF’s 236 treatment centers still functioning, access to care continues to shrink.

“For children, conditions like malnutrition can lead to lifelong health issues like stunting, weakened immune systems, and organ failure,” Save the Children’s Alhendawi said.

He warned that the effects “can span generations … creating a cycle of poverty for the entire population.”��

Meanwhile, the death toll continues to climb. Gaza’s health authority says at least 18,885 children have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023, when Tel Aviv launched military operations in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

When child casualties occur, the Israel Defense Forces frequently cites mistakes or misidentification.

For instance, when 10 people, including six children, were killed in a bombing while queuing for water in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in July, the IDF stated it was an error.

“A technical mistake occurred during an operation aimed at an alleged Islamic Jihad terrorist, leading to the munition landing far from its intended target. The incident is currently under investigation.”

Those children who survive have limited prospects. As students around the world prepare for the new school year, Gaza’s children are falling behind.��

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, said on Aug. 30 that more than 660,000 children in the enclave are now missing school for a third year in a row.

“The war in Gaza is a war on children and it must stop. Children must be protected at all times,” UNRWA said in a statement, warning that Gaza’s youth risk becoming a “lost generation.”

Most schools have been damaged, destroyed, or converted into shelters amid bombardment and displacement. The Palestinian Ministry of Education says Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 17,000 students and more than 1,000 education staff since October 2023.

Each number tells a human story: of Mohammed, whose mother only wanted to hear him laugh again, and Razan, who carries grief and pain beyond her years.

To salvage what remains of childhoods in Gaza, rights groups and several governments have urged Israel to implement an immediate ceasefire and allow unrestricted aid to flow into the enclave.

Until then, survival replaces play, hunger replaces growth, and rubble replaces classrooms. In the process, a generation risks being erased.

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