SHOTLIST:

- GAZA, PALESTINE (JULY 24, 2025) (ANADOLU - ACCESS ALL)

1. INFANTS RECEIVING TREATMENT IN PEDIATRIC WARD AT AL-AQSA MARTYRS HOSPITAL

2. HEALTH CONDITION OF 5-MONTH-OLD EMIR AL-KILANI UNDER TREATMENT AT AL-AQSA MARTYRS HOSPITAL

3. HEALTH CONDITION OF 1-YEAR-OLD MUHAMMED AWAD UNDER TREATMENT AT AL-AQSA MARTYRS HOSPITAL

4. INTERVIEW WITH EMIR’S MOTHER, RIHAM AL-KILANI

5. INTERVIEW WITH MUHAMMED AWAD’S MOTHER, AMINE AWAD GAZA, PALESTINE - JULY 24: Hospitals across Gaza are filling up with babies on the brink of death from malnutrition, as Israel’s systematic policy of starvation continues to tighten its grip on the besieged enclave.

Desperate mothers are pleading for help, terrified that their children might slip away at any moment.

The widespread hunger and malnutrition crisis is claiming lives swiftly, affecting not only children but adults as well.

Even hospitals still managing to operate under dire circumstances are seeing a dramatic surge in cases.

At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis and at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, dozens of helpless mothers wait with frail, skeletal children cradled in their arms.

Among them is 5-month-old Rama Abu Ayya, whose tiny body is clinging to life. Born weighing just three kilograms, Rama has failed to gain even a single gram in five months.

Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital, said Rama has lost her fat tissue completely, suffers from severe anemia and vitamin deficiencies, and has been reduced to nothing but skin and bones.

Nearby lies 11-month-old Sila Barbah, whose weight has plummeted to four kilograms — less than half of what she should weigh. Sila has lost 60% of her body mass.

Her mother, Nejah Barbah, speaks through tears of the constant fear that grips her. “Every night, I wake up three or four times to see if my daughter is still breathing,” she said, adding that: “I pray to God to find her alive when I open my eyes. I want to hear her cry, just so I know she’s alive. So many babies in this hospital room have died from hunger. Eighty children have already died. I’m afraid my daughter will be the eighty-first.”

At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the same nightmare repeats.

Five-month-old Emir al-Kilani suffers from muscle weakness and spasms due to malnutrition.

His mother, Riham al-Kilani, said she herself is too malnourished to feed him properly. “This child needs baby formula. Why can’t he eat and drink like children in other Arab countries?”

Nearby, one-year-old Muhammed Awad also teeters on the edge. Acute diarrhea and severe malnutrition have wasted his body.

His mother, Amine Awad, said they have been searching for baby formula for three months without success.

“Children die in front of our eyes every day, and we can do nothing,” she said.

The crisis has now spread beyond children. “Even adults are suffering from malnutrition,” Amine added.

“People collapse in the streets from exhaustion. The hospital is overflowing with people battling hunger," she said.

As Gaza’s hospitals grow ever more crowded, so too does the fear that tomorrow will bring more tiny bodies that no amount of medicine can save.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Authority in Gaza said hospitals recorded two new fatalities related to hunger and malnutrition, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to 113.

Since March 2, Israel has stalled on implementing a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas and has kept Gaza’s border crossings shut, leaving humanitarian aid trucks stranded along the frontier.

Israel has killed more than 59,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.