Death, Lost Limbs, and Starvation: Gaza Children Suffer Unimaginably as World Continues to 'Look Away'

Several new reports from the United Nations have once again highlighted the horrific toll Israel's genocidal military onslaught has taken on the children of Gaza.

More than 17,000 children have been reported killed over the past 20 months. But that figure only scratches the surface of the suffering being inflicted.

Reports released this week detailed overwhelming malnourishment among children due to Israel's blockade of food entering the strip. Meanwhile, children losing limbs from war wounds is a daily occurrence.

As The Guardian's editorial board wrote yesterday, "a classroom-worth of children have been killed each day since the war began." Over just the past week, there have been multiple horrific massacres in which children were killed.

On Sunday, six children were killed by an Israeli drone strike while waiting to collect water, deaths Israel attributed to a "technical error." The Thursday before that, another 10 children were killed by an airstrike as they lined up outside a hospital waiting for nutritional supplements and treatment.

As The Guardian noted, these children were in such positions as a result of Israel's deliberate strangulation of their access to the resources needed to live:

Those six thirsty children should not have needed to queue for water due to what the UN calls a human-made drought. Human Rights Watch believes that thousands of Palestinians have died due to Israel's deliberate pattern of actions to deprive them of water, which it alleges amounts to the crime against humanity of extermination as well as acts of genocide.

Those 10 hungry children should not have required nutritional supplements, but Israel continues to choke off aid and civilians are starving.

On Tuesday, UNRWA reported that 1 in 10 of the children screened in its clinics suffer from acute malnutrition.

"Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA's director of communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.

"One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries," Touma said. "Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out."

In a post on UNRWA's blog, Touma wrote:

There are very little therapeutic supplies to treat children with malnutrition as basics are scarce in Gaza. The Israeli authorities have imposed a tight siege blocking the entry of food, medicines, medical and nutritional supplies and hygiene material includ[ing] soap. While the siege is sometimes eased, UNRWA (the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza) has not been allowed to bring in humanitarian assistance since 2 March.

She said that UNRWA has more than 6,000 aid trucks waiting for the "green light" from Israeli authorities, who continue to block them.

"Why should babies die of malnutrition in the 21st century, especially when it's totally preventable?" she asked.

Another report from the U.N.-sponsored Global Protection Cluster found that in addition to the 17,000 children reported dead, more than 40,000 have war-related disabilities. A quarter of those require acute or ongoing rehabilitation.

It found that on average, "10 children per day lose one or both of their legs" as a result of ongoing attacks by Israeli forces.

In December, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported that "Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world—many losing limbs and undergoing surgeries without even anesthesia."

This is due in part to the war's effects on Gaza's hospitals, just 47% of which remain partially functional due to destruction by the Israeli military and supply shortages caused by the blockade.

"Gaza’s shattered health system is overwhelmed—and aid is being blocked by the government of Israel. The world cannot continue to look away," said UNRWA in a post Tuesday.

With the backing of the United States, Israel has banned UNRWA staff from entering the Gaza Strip since March, citing uncorroborated accusations that 19 out of UNRWA's approximately 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel.

Since then, aid infrastructure in the strip has been largely demolished, with most of it now directed by the U.S.-Israeli-administered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. More than 870 people have been killed in massacres at these aid sites.

"The U.N., including UNRWA and partners, must be allowed to do their work and bring in humanitarian assistance at scale, including for children, said Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general. "Any additional delay to a cease-fire now will cause more deaths."