Gaza's parents fight to keep their babies alive amid Israel's cruel blockade of baby formula and medical aid

Since March 2025, Gaza has been gripped by a worsening humanitarian crisis, with food shortages and collapsing health services hitting the youngest and most vulnerable the hardest.

This crisis is not just about numbers — it is visible in the faces of grieving parents and the growing number of small graves of children across Gaza, revealing a humanitarian failure unfolding in plain sight.

As Israel’s blockade continues to cut off access to baby formula, food, and medical supplies, relatives of children spoke to The New Arab about what life has been like in recent months, as preventable illnesses keep claiming young lives.

Jouri Al-Masri: Starved before her first laugh

In Deir al-Balah, three-month-old Jouri Al-Masri died on 27 June after a desperate fight for the lactose-free formula she needed.

Born healthy at 3.7 kilogrammes with no chronic illnesses, Jouri’s life was cut short because the blockade has made the special formula impossible to find in Gaza.

Her father, Mohsen Al-Masri, searched everywhere — from hospital to hospital, clinic to clinic — but there was nothing.

“Not a single can,” he shared.

“My daughter died of hunger,” he added. “She was crying with no strength left. Her body just gave up.”

In light of these shortages, by 19 June, hospitals had warned that formula supplies were dangerously low, and with borders still closed, Jouri’s tiny body wasted away, making her one of three infants who tragically starved to death within 24 hours.

The loss of Hassan Barbakh

Closer to Khan Younis, an uncle shared the story of his three-year-old nephew, Hassan Barbakh. 

Hassan, like many other children in Gaza, died from severe malnutrition, kidney failure, dangerously high blood acidity, rickets, hypovitaminosis, and extreme fatigue, causing him to weigh closer to that of a three-month-old.

According to one doctor, “He had no energy left. He couldn’t even lift his hands.”

Hassan’s uncle remembered the anguish of his final days: “We cried to the world. We asked for help, for a way to get him out, but nobody answered.”

He added that Hassan’s father was killed in an airstrike, and his brother also died from similar complications, but despite desperate appeals, no medical evacuation was granted.

As one health worker put it, “The food he needed was just a few miles away, beyond a checkpoint,” but despite efforts to arrange a transfer through humanitarian channels, local staff were told there were “no clearances,” turning a system meant to save lives into one that ultimately sealed his fate.

Lentils instead of milk for twin infants

Similarly, Joud Zourob shared the challenges she faces feeding her twins, Tawfiq and Naya.

After trying for five years, she gave birth to them and now lives in a small tent, forced to feed them lentils instead of milk.

She explained how limited their formula supply has become: “One can of formula used to last a day. Now, I stretch it across a week. They get a bottle at night; during the day, they eat lentils.”

Joud also said she couldn’t breastfeed her babies, explaining, “Since early pregnancy, I’ve been malnourished. I had no strength, no nutrition, and no chance.”

Describing the twins’ reaction, she said: “They cried. They got diarrhoea and fevers. They looked at me, confused and sick. They hate the lentils, but what else can I do?”

She added that her husband spends each day visiting shelters and clinics to find powdered milk, sometimes trading blankets or food to get some.

“Every day feels like a slow death,” she said. “They are so little, and I can’t protect them.”

Reflecting on her circumstances, Joud said, “I wanted to celebrate their birth. Instead, I am fighting to keep them alive with soup.”

Nermin’s pregnancy in a tent

In northern Gaza, Nermin Al-Halabi shared that she is in the final weeks of her first pregnancy, living in a tent and facing an uncertain future.

She said, “There is no healthy food to eat to feed me and the baby inside my womb.”

Nermin added, “I don’t know how I will deliver or where, as there are no health services in hospitals. I don’t know if I will deliver my baby in good health. I don’t want to bring my baby into this world where there is no food. I’m too worried and anxious.”

Undeniably, Nermin’s concerns reflect the wider crisis in Gaza, where most hospitals are out of service or destroyed, forcing many pregnant women to give birth without trained staff, sanitation, or medicine, putting their unborn children at risk.

The deaths of Kinda Al-Hams and Nidal Shurrab

In another heartbreaking case, ten-day-old Kinda Al-Hams and five-month-old Nidal Shurrab both died of malnutrition on 26 June.

Kinda was delivered by C-section and placed in an incubator, but her condition quickly worsened due to a lack of formula.

Her father, Mohammad, explained: “She needed milk to survive. That’s all. But there was none. If treatment had been available, she’d be with us today. Instead, I buried my baby before I even had a chance to know her.”

Nidal’s father faced a similar ordeal while trying to save his child. “For more than two weeks, I searched every day for milk,” he said. “We begged. We pleaded. And then… it was too late.”

Bound by grief, the families of Kinda and Nidal, who had never met before, recently buried their babies side by side.

Nidal’s mother reflected on the shared grief, saying, “We didn’t know each other before. But now we are linked forever, by loss.”

A weaponised policy

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 66 children have died from malnutrition since October 2023. In May alone, over 5,100 children under five were treated for acute malnutrition — a 50% rise from April. UNICEF also estimates that 600,000 children under five in Gaza are now malnourished.

Aid agencies and medical professionals stress that these deaths are not caused by a lack of resources but by policy decisions.

Dr Aziz Rahman, an American intensive care specialist volunteering in Gaza, said, “Can we feed these babies? Yes. The solution is simple; let aid in. The problem is man-made.”

Dr Aziz also noted that hospitals are running dangerously low on essential medicines, with nearly no stocks remaining, and 65% of medical supplies already depleted. As a result, mothers have been forced to dilute formula or use unsafe alternatives.

Dr Ahmad Al-Farra described the desperate choices parents face: “A mother asked me, ‘How can I breastfeed when I have nothing to eat myself?’ These are choices no parent should have to make.”

Looking ahead, the World Health Organization warns that the ongoing blockade, combined with the collapse of infrastructure, risks pushing Gaza into a prolonged famine, especially affecting children under five, with babies too weak to cry becoming the new face of Gaza’s silent catastrophe.

Meanwhile, as bombs continue to silence cities, hunger is erasing futures. Starving and grieving, Gaza’s mothers cradle their infants, begging for the most basic right: to feed them.

With no end in sight to this collective punishment, these mothers are also left wondering: How much longer will this continue? How many more children must starve? How many more mothers must bury their babies?

Eman Alhaj Ali is a Palestinian freelance journalist, writer, translator, and storyteller from Gaza. She is currently based in Ireland, completing her postgraduate studies

Follow her on X: @EmanAlhajAli1 and Instagram: @eman.alhajali