In every image emerging from Gaza, there is a haunting sameness: children reduced to skin and bone. Their brittle frames limp in the arms of parents or medics. Their vitamin-deficient dry eyes staring at a world that passes them by.
Thousands of children face acute starvation in the war-ravaged Gaza as Israel banned for nearly three months all food and medicine from reaching 2.3 million Palestinians facing nonstop bombing for 20 months.
It allowed only a small number of aid trucks to enter the territory earlier this week as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feared international allies would withdraw support over “images of hunger”.
But for many, it’s too little, too late. UN officials described the small volume of aid allowed into Gaza by Israel as “a drop in the ocean”.
Experts say that the effects of long-term malnutrition on a child are insidious, irreversible and more than one.
“They stop playing… they don’t even have the energy to play,” says Livia Tampellini, doctor at the emergency cell of Medecins Sans Frontieres. 
Speaking to TRT World, she explains that play, even amid sickness, is a child’s instinctive expression of life. “The day a child stops playing is painful… you don’t need to be a doctor to feel sad.”
UNICEF reported last week 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers in Gaza needed urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.
More than 116,000 tonnes of food assistance sufficient for one million people for up to four months is already positioned in aid corridors, but Israel is not letting aid agencies bring it into the occupied territory.
The UN children’s agency estimates “tens of thousands” of malnutrition cases are expected in the coming year as Gaza teeters on the brink of a famine.
As many as 71,000 children and 17,000 mothers in Gaza need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. (Photo/AP)
Anatomy of a starving child
The physiology of a starving child differs from that of a starving adult. Unlike adults, children devote most of their nutrition to growth and brain development. Adults have reserves to draw from. Children do not. 
“Even the little energy reserves that a child maintains under normal circumstances are long gone in the case of kids living in Gaza,” Tampellini says. “They have not been eating normally for a long time.” 
The impact goes beyond the visible emaciation. Hunger at this level stunts growth, weakens bones, and disrupts immune function. The prototypical signs—sunken eyes, skeletal limbs, distended bellies—are matched by a profound lethargy.
According to Tampellini, surviving starvation is even tougher for the children in Gaza because they have been living in a war zone with severe food shortages for nearly 20 months.
Chronic hunger also leads to a reduced appetite as starving children lose even the motivation to eat. Their capacity to remain attentive and focus becomes “less and less” with each passing day.
“A malnourished body is an immunocompromised body,” Tampellini adds. “So even a little diarrhoea or a little infection could affect it badly and more frequently. A malnourished child will be sicker longer.”
Worse still, Gaza’s medical infrastructure lies in ruins. “Their capacity to provide treatment for diarrhoea or pneumonia is less, far lesser than before,” Tampellini adds.
According to the World Health Organization, only 19 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain functional, operating in what it calls “impossible conditions.” At least 94 percent of all hospitals in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed while north Gaza has been “stripped of nearly all health care”.
According to WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan, the entire population of Gaza was “in imminent danger of death”. “We need to end the starvation, we need to release all hostages, and we need to resupply and bring the health system back online.”
Shorouk Ayyad, mother of malnourished Palestinian child from Gaza, Rahaf Ayyad, 12, shows signs of malnutrition on her daughter's back. (Photo/Reuters)
Mental health at risk
Even as the body collapses, the effects of starvation on a child’s mind are equally harrowing. 
The psychological impact of extreme malnourishment is profound, unpredictable and often invisible, Rabia Yavuz, a clinical psychologist associated with Istanbul's Medipol University, tells TRT World.
“Hunger signals danger to the body, forcing the brain into survival mode,” she explains. “In this state, higher functions like focusing, learning, and emotional regulation are pushed aside.” 
A starving child may become numb, anxious, or hyper-vigilant. Instead of imagining a future, their mind becomes trapped in desperate insecurity. 
“Hunger doesn’t just gnaw at the belly. It erodes the foundations of mental stability,” she says.
If the child somehow survives chronic hunger, they grow up to be an adult who struggles to trust, feel safe, regulate emotions, or form healthy relationships, she says.
“The nervous system learns from experience… Later in life, this may show up as anxiety, depression, a deep sense of unworthiness, or even physical illness.”
___
Source: TRT