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Nearly 290,000 Gaza children on ‘the brink of death’ amid Israeli blockade

Gaza Media Office says some 3,500 children below five ‘face imminent death by starvation’ amid Israel’s total blockade.

Gaza malnourished children — Ahmed el-Sheikh Eid, seven, who shows signs of malnutrition, sits in his family tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]

More than 3,500 children below the age of five years “face imminent death by starvation”, Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) has said, adding that some 70,000 children are being hospitalised in the enclave due to severe malnutrition amid more than two months of total Israeli blockade.

“Under this systematic blockade, more than 3,500 children under the age of five face imminent death by starvation, while approximately 290,000 children are on the brink of death,” the GMO statement on Telegram said on Sunday.

“At a time when 1.1 million children daily lack the minimum nutritional requirements for survival, this crime is being perpetrated by the ‘Israeli’ occupation using starvation as a weapon, amid shameful international silence,” it added.

At least 57 Palestinians have starved to death, causing global outrage, but that has failed to convince Israel to allow entry of aid into the enclave of 2.3 million people.

A shortage of food and supplies has driven the territory towards starvation, according to aid agencies. Supplies to treat and prevent malnutrition are depleted and quickly running out as documented cases of malnutrition rise.

The price of what little food is still available in the market is unaffordable for most in Gaza, where the United Nations says more than 80 percent of the population relies on aid.

Aid groups and rights campaigners have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.

Israel, for its part, insists the blockade is necessary to pressure Hamas to release the captives it still holds. Of the 59 captives still in Gaza, 24 are believed to be alive.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 52,495 Palestinians and wounded 118,366, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The GMO updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.

Mideast Wars Malnourished Children — Mona al-Raqab lifts the shirt of her five-year-old son, Osama al-Raqab, revealing signs of malnutrition and worsening cystic fibrosis at the malnutrition clinic in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]

Osama al-Raqab, 5, whose mother says his cystic fibrosis has worsened since the start of the war due to the lack of meat, fish and enzyme tablets to help him digest food, at the malnutrition clinic in Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza, on Thursday, May 1, 2025 — Osama's cystic fibrosis has worsened since the start of the war due to the lack of meat, fish and enzyme tablets to help him digest food. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]

Palestinian children cry for food in Gaza — Palestinian children struggle to get food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]