Gazans are dying of hunger. Here's what happens to a starving human body.

Children suffering under severe food shortages can face lifelong consequences.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2025/gaza-hunger-starvation-children-body/

https://archive.ph/zaLvf


Samah Matar holds her malnourished son Youssef, who suffers from cerebral palsy, at a school where they are sheltering in Gaza City. (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters)

Under near-total Israeli siege, the more than 2 million people in Gaza — including some 1 million children — face desperate and worsening hunger. Nearly 1 in 3 people are going multiple days without eating, according to the United Nations, and Gaza’s few remaining hospitals are reporting rising deaths from malnutrition and starvation. Photos and videos from the territory show emaciated children with skin stretched tightly over bones and distended bellies.



For months, aid groups had warned of the impending risk of famine as Israel heavily restricted the flow of U.N. supplies into Gaza. More than 100 humanitarian organizations issued a statement Wednesday describing “mass starvation” in the territory. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, more than 100 people have died of starvation since the beginning of the war. New fatalities are tallied each day. “I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it’s man-made, and that’s very clear,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference Wednesday.



Some 6,000 trucks carrying food, water and supplies from the U.N. sit outside Gaza. According to the U.N., Israel has barred the convoy from entering the enclave. In a briefing with reporters Wednesday, an Israeli military official said there was a “lack of food security inside Gaza,” but said the U.N. was failing to deliver aid. “There is no limit. The crossings are open — just bring the trucks and take the aid,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, in line with the rules of the briefing.



“The Israeli authorities are the sole decision-makers on who, how and how much aid enters the Gaza Strip, and the type of supplies that are allowed in,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a briefing Wednesday, adding that drivers need multiple access approvals from Israeli forces and must wait for a pause in the bombing. As hunger sets in, the toll on the human body is evident. The younger the person, the greater the impact.

















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