After nearly three months the total aid blockade in Gaza and intensive attacks from Israel, children suffer the most severe consequences, said a local doctor, from death and injury to hunger.
A Palestinian senior pediatrician described the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as “unbelievable,” watching children who were dying because of hunger and injury that could be prevented, the scene that he said had learned in textbooks, but was never imagined seeing in real life.
In an interview with ABC News this week, Dr. Ahmmed Al-Farra, Head of Pediatri and Maternity in the Nasser Gaza Medical Complex, said the hospital collapsed throughout the region.
There are no general hospitals operating in the north of the Strip and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, who had been the largest hospital in South Gaza, has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli air strikes.

Palestinians who were moved fled from Khan Younis, Gaza, in the midst of Israeli military offensive in the area, May 19, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana/Ap
Al-Farra said that many patients had died at the operating table due to lack of important equipment and medicines. “If a patient in northern Gaza experiences chest pain or injured, he will lose his life,” Al-Farra said. “All hospitals there are missing: Shifa, Kamal Adwan, Indonesian Hospital. Destrained or cannot be operated.”
He painted a picture of a devastating life in Gaza, more than 19 months after the war. “We see children with marasmus – skin and bones,” he said. “Some are only 40% of the expected weight. Severe malnutrition, no protein, no vitamins.”
Marasmus is a severe form of malnutrition characterized by protein-energy deficiency, which is caused by inadequate calorie intake that causes severe fat and muscle loss, according to the National Institutes of Health. Meanwhile, it can occur to anyone with severe malnutrition, usually occurs in children.
Siwar Ashour, a child in Gaza, was born small, but was a baby who was relatively healthy six months ago, according to Al-Farra.
But today, he is very nutritional and struggles for his life in Nasser Hospital, said the doctor. The facility has been repeatedly bombed by Israel, including attacks on Monday. Israeli defense force officials said they targeted terrorists who hid there.
Siwar is bound in plastic, according to Al-Farra. The doctor said his weight loss was so severe that he could no longer regulate his own body temperature. And at the age of 6 months, it weighs more than 7 pounds. It is less than half the average weight of American baby girls, according to the disease control center.
“If he doesn’t take the suitable milk formula, unfortunately, he will not survive,” Al-Farra said.

A truck that was published with the help was seen at the intersection of the Shalom Kerem between Israel and Gaza, on the Israeli side in this handout picture obtained by Reuters, May 20, 2025.
Cogat Way Reuters
Nearly 500,000 people in Gaza faced disaster hunger, according to a report issued by 17 UN institutions and NGOs. Israeli officials have denied the agency numbers and said their warnings were wrong in the past.
Detailing the only option that his colleague has in hospitals to fight the severe malnutrition in children, al-farra said that médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors without Borders, has managed to provide small amounts of emergency baby formula, Known as F-Formula (MSF), or Doctor. and F-100, to treat acute malnutrition in babies.
The doctor, however, said the condition of the child often worsened again after being discharged from the hospital. “We give children a little formula-F-75, F-100-from MSF, only in the hospital,” he explained. “They become a little better, and then we have to send them home, because we need a bed for the next child. But outside, there is no food, no milk, no protein. They returned a week later, worse than before.”
Al-Farra also highlighted the widespread hunger that befell the Palestinians of all ages and all levels of society in Gaza, now 11 weeks into the prohibition of Israel for humanitarian assistance entering the strip. Even as a doctor with relatively stable income, he said he had left without meat, chicken and fresh fish for more than three months. “I don’t have chicken or meat protein in the last three months … If this is my reality, imagine what it feels like for people on the streets,” he said.
Following the recurring international warning about the disaster humanitarian situation in Gaza, Israel allowed five aid trucks to enter the area on Monday, according to Cogat, the coordinator of the Israeli government activities in the region. A high -ranking Israeli official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that aid trucks contain flour, baby food, medical supplies and staples for the central kitchen in Gaza.
Israel said they imposed a blockade of humanitarian assistance on March 2 to suppress Hamas to release the remaining hostages. The temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas ended on March 1. The ceasefire completely collapsed on March 18 when Israel continued military operations in Gaza.

A Palestinian woman brought flat bread made with lentil soil during lack of flour, in her shelter at the Jabalia camp for refugees in the northern Gaza Strip, May 6, 2025.
Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images
Israel on Sunday agreed to allow “basic” food to Gaza, saying it did not want a “hunger crisis.”
Israel allowed 100 aid trucks to enter Gaza on Tuesday, said UN Deputy Spokesman Jens Laerke. But there was no assistance distributed in Gaza, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said during his daily briefing from the UN headquarters in New York Tuesday.
The amount of assistance is described as a “a drop of ocean” by the UN Under-Secretary General for humanitarian affairs and emergency assistance coordinator, Unocha.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the decision to allow assistance to come after pressure from US parliament members.
The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorist fighters entered Israel and killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages. There are still 58 hostages detained by Hamas, 20 of which are considered alive. Hamas is believed to hold the body of four Americans.
The war had taken a big victim against Palestinians, with more than 53,000 dead since 7 October 2023, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health managed by Hamas. While statistics do not distinguish between military and non-military victims, women and children are tens of thousands of this number, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Highlighting the terrible situation of war survivors in Gaza, especially children, Al-Farra begged for immediate assistance to enter the strip. “We did not ask for a miracle. We ask for food, medicine,” he said. “They are not numbers on paper – they are humans created by God. They have the right to survive.”
Old ABC News’ Hasan, Samy Zyara, Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller contributed to this report