Gaza hospital reports first child deaths from hunger as aid crisis surges

Previously healthy children are dying from malnutrition in Gaza's main paediatric emergency facility amidst the Israel-Hamas war, marking a grim escalation in the ongoing aid crisis.

Previously healthy children are dying from malnutrition at Gaza's main paediatric emergency facility for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began, doctors reported this week.The Patients' Friends Hospital in northern Gaza recorded deaths of children with no underlying health conditions last weekend, marking what staff described as a grim escalation in the territory's humanitarian aid crisis.“There are no words in the face of the disaster we are in. Kids are dying before the world,” said Dr Rana Soboh, a nutritionist at the hospital. “There is no uglier and more horrible phase than this.” According to Dr Soboh, parents bring 200 to 300 children daily to the overflowing facility, where patients now stay longer without improvement despite treatment. Previously, many patients recovered despite supply shortages.At least 48 people, including 20 children and 28 adults, have died of causes linked to malnutrition in the past three weeks alone, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. That is in comparison to 10 child deaths from hunger reported in the first five months of 2025. The United Nations has reported similar figures. The World Health Organisation said 21 children under the age of five have died of malnutrition-related causes so far this year.  “Humans are well developed to live with caloric deficits, but only so far,” said Dr John Kahler, Medglobal’s co-founder and a paediatrician who volunteered twice in Gaza during the war. “It appears that we have crossed the line where a segment of the population has reached their limits.” “This is the beginning of a population death spiral,” he said. The World Food Programme estimates nearly 100,000 women and children in Gaza urgently require treatment for malnutrition. Medical workers say they have run out of many key therapies and medicines. In January, Israel banned the main UN organisation, UNRWA, from delivering aid, accusing the organisation of not preventing Hamas from infiltrating it without providing evidence. Israel has also accused Hamas of looting aid for war profiteering, which the militant group denies.Speaking at a Security Council meeting on Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the situation in Gaza as a "horror show, with a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times."