The world was once again shaken by the heart-wrenching images of famine-stricken children in the Gaza Strip. Among them, stood Naeema, a 30-year-old Palestinian mother, who carried her malnourished 2-year-old son Yazan in her arms as they stood in their damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 23, 2025.
It is a scene that has become all too familiar in the war-torn region, where innocent children are paying the ultimate price for a conflict that has been ongoing for decades. These children, like Yazan, are the true victims of a situation they had no part in creating.
The internet was inundated with images and videos of emaciated babies and children held by their desperate parents. Among them was two-year-old Yazan, severely malnourished and struggling to survive. His mother, Naeema, along with countless other parents in Gaza, have been forced to watch their children waste away due to the lack of access to food and essential supplies.
Tragically, Yazan is not alone. Another young victim of the famine is six-week-old Youssef, who died of malnutrition as his family couldn’t access formula milk. And then there is Muhammad, an 18-month-old who faced life-threatening malnutrition, having dropped from nine to six kilograms in weight.
It is a devastating reality that we now live in a world where innocent Gazan children are telling their parents that they “want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food”.
No child should ever have to endure this level of hunger. It is especially cruel that food and aid, including much-needed formula milk, are available but not reaching these children. The reason behind this tragedy is a blockade imposed by Israel, which has prevented humanitarian aid and essential supplies from reaching the Gaza Strip.
The reason for the blockade was to force Hamas to release hostages taken after the brutal attacks on 7 October 2023, in which over 1,000 people were massacred by the terrorist organization. However, the consequences of this blockade have been devastating, with the BBC reporting that the shortages of food, medicine, and fuel have only worsened with time.
Earlier this week, Joseph Belliveau of the US-based medical humanitarian group MedGlobal, revealed that children had died “because there is not enough food in Gaza and not enough medicines, including IV fluids and therapeutic formula, to revive them”.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 113 people have already died “due to famine and malnutrition”. While a senior Israeli security official denied these claims, according to The Times of Israel, they did admit that there has been a significant drop in the amount of aid reaching Palestinians in the Strip.
The images, videos, and first-hand accounts coming out of Gaza paint a bleak picture of the situation. More than 100 international aid organizations and human rights groups have warned of mass starvation in Gaza. Journalists on the ground have also reported that they are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families.
Mohammed Alkhatib, Medical Aid for Palestinians’ (MAP) deputy director of programs in south Gaza, told HuffPost UK, “so far, no therapeutic supplements for malnutrition cases have been allowed in”.
“Alarmingly, we have started to see a rise in deaths linked to malnutrition, not only among children but also the elderly,” he added. “People with disabilities, too, are being left with no access to tailored nutrition support.”
Professor Nick Maynard, a British surgeon who volunteered with MAP in Gaza in June and July 2025, described the malnutrition he witnessed as “indescribably bad”.
“It’s much, much worse now than when I was here a year ago. I have seen a seven-month-old who looked like a newborn. The expression ‘skin and bones’ doesn’t do it justice,” he said.
Even the most right-wing mainstream newspaper in Britain, The Daily Express, shared an image of 18-month-old Muhammad on its front page with the plea: “For pity’s sake, stop this now.”
In another heart-wrenching post shared on social media, Dr. Zoe Williams – known for her appearances on ITV’s This Morning – revealed “the sickening, heartbreaking, despicable truth” that for many children in Gaza, “their fate is now already set”.
“This is the way starvation works, you reach a point
