Maedeh Zaman Fashami, journalist and researcher
“My nieces and nephews are hungry, and this hunger is quietly killing them. There’s nothing I can do to save them.” With a voice trembling from grief, Alaa Arafat — a Palestinian woman once surrounded by children’s laughter and play — shares her pain. The home that was once lively is now darkened by relentless bombardment, brutal siege, and a military strategy that has turned it into a grave for starving and malnourished children. Alaa comes from a large family with eight siblings and nine nieces and nephews. Children who once brimmed with energy are now frail, shrunken bodies, worn down by hunger.
Her sister Sama, a mother of seven, has fled her home multiple times, losing nearly everything. Now, she survives on a few cans of food and whatever bread she can find. Every day, she watches her children grow thinner and weaker. Her daughter Lena weighs just 13 kilograms. Doctors have confirmed severe malnutrition. Once a vibrant, playful girl, Lena is now pale and too weak to play, even to stand. Alaa’s other sister, Asma, has a two-month-old baby named Wateen suffering from jaundice due to poor nutrition and lack of formula.
Malnutrition as a weapon of prolonged war
This heartbreaking story is just one among thousands in Gaza, where families live under heavy bombardment and suffocating siege. Reports from international organizations such as UNICEF and WHO state that over 18,000 Palestinian children have died, while more than 1.1 million others are at risk of starvation and extreme deprivation. This humanitarian crisis isn’t accidental; it’s the calculated outcome of war strategies aimed at eliminating future generations of Palestine.
Malnutrition in Gaza goes beyond weight loss. It’s a deep physiological and psychological emergency. It damages vital organs like the liver, kidneys, and stomach. It impairs development, weakens immunity, increases vulnerability to disease, and causes cognitive issues and emotional trauma. Children suffering from malnutrition often fail to grow properly, leaving behind a generation that is physically and mentally fragile, less able to resist oppression and occupation.
The most vulnerable victims
Among the most endangered are pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and infants. Thousands of pregnant women in Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, a figure that has risen sharply in recent years. Nutritional deficiencies, including lack of vitamins, iron, and protein, lead to a surge in premature and underweight births, significantly increasing infant mortality. The mental strain from war and siege worsens maternal health and affects fetal development.
Breastfeeding under these conditions has become a monumental challenge. Malnourished mothers often produce little milk, and its nutritional value is reduced. Field studies show that around 45% of mothers in Gaza resort to mixed feeding, giving their babies both breast milk and formula. But formula is scarce, and using it without clean water and sterile equipment presents grave risks.
UNICEF data reveals that nearly 25% of infants under one in Gaza suffer from acute malnutrition. Their immune systems are fragile, leaving them highly susceptible to infections and disease. The infant mortality rate has soared due to lack of medical equipment, essential medicines, and qualified healthcare workers. Beyond nutrition and hygiene, psychological pressures from war, constant fear of bombings, and daily instability have taken a toll on mothers and children. Anxiety, depression, and chronic stress plague many, intensifying both mental and physical suffering.
Despite global efforts to support mothers and newborns in Gaza, without lifting the siege and opening borders, aid remains limited and insufficient. While global media have slowly started condemning the genocide two years into its unfolding, Western governments have yet to take meaningful action, failing to deliver essential aid and implicitly revealing their complicity in Gaza’s hunger and bloodshed. As Imam Khamenei said on December 23, 2023: “The Palestinian nation’s great victory in this is the discrediting of the West, the US, and their false claims of human rights. Today, everyone is aware of these masquerades. They know what the truth is behind their use of words like “human rights” and such things.”
While mothers across the world embrace their newborns peacefully and speak of the emotional bond and irreplaceable benefits of breastfeeding, mothers in Gaza struggle, physically and spiritually, for just a drop of milk. In the midst of famine, electricity outages, water scarcity, and lack of medicine, breast milk is more than nourishment, it’s a shield against death. And yet, how can a mother who herself is starving, exhausted, and trapped, be expected to nourish her child? Breastfeeding becomes painful, sometimes impossible. These mothers, whose bodies can no longer endure, cradle their babies with dry lips, sleepless eyes, and the faint hope of something so simple: being fed.
As World Breastfeeding Week urges global support for maternal health, a contrasting reality unfolds in Gaza, where even the act of being a mother becomes a daily battle for survival. A jarring contradiction between a world that celebrates the power of breastfeeding, and a mother too weak to hold her own child.
Alaa’s voice trembles as she asks:
“Who will answer for the blood of these children? Who hears us?”
Her question echoes in the silence—carried by thousands of families still waiting for rescue in Gaza.