Gaza child, 4, dies from severe malnutrition due to Israeli blockade
A four-year-old Palestinian child has succumbed to severe malnutrition caused by the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Reports on Sunday citing sources at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital said doctors confirmed prolonged malnutrition was the cause of Mohammad Mustafa Yassin’s death. The boy’s father was killed in an Israeli bombing about eight months ago.
Israel has imposed a deliberate policy of starvation on Gaza while its forces continue the military assault on the territory.
Medical sources have reported dozens of confirmed malnutrition-related deaths and hundreds more due to a lack of access to food and medicine.
The Israeli regime forces have created a state of famine for Gaza’s 2.4 million population by blocking Gaza’s access to aid convoys stranded at closed border crossings, unable to enter.
Meanwhile, the regime has ordered its killing machine to intensify the ground and air attacks against Gazans, launching large-scale military offensives in both northern and southern Gaza.
The Palestinian people of Gaza are facing “the worst humanitarian crisis” since the Israelis launched the genocidal war against Gaza in October 2023, with civilians at imminent risk of famine, 80 countries wrote in a joint statement to the United Nations on Friday.
Hamas welcomed the 80 countries’ joint statement to the UN.
“We welcome the joint statement issued by 80 UN member states, which confirmed that the Gaza Strip is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since the beginning of the Zionist aggression in October 2023, and called for the protection of Palestinian civilians under international humanitarian law.”
Breaking the Israeli blockade on Gaza requires these countries “to effectively pressure for the relief of our people, halt the crime of starvation, and break the brutal siege imposed upon them,” said Hamas.
Meanwhile, the UN has described very little humanitarian aid reaching Gaza as “a needle in a haystack”, confirming that the Palestinian enclave remains trapped in a catastrophic humanitarian emergency.
Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that to sustain Gaza’s starving population, a minimum of 500–600 aid trucks per day were required.
The World Food Programme estimates that two million people are at risk of severe starvation and famine unless immediate action is taken.
Aid groups cautioned that civilians, especially children and infants, are now at risk of death by starvation.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli regime forces’ genocidal war on Gaza has left some 54,000 Palestinians dead and over twice more wounded.
