A five-month-old Palestinian baby suffering from severe malnutrition died in the arms of a Gaza mother on Friday.
Girl – Zainab Abu Halib passed away on Friday after her mother took her to a hospital in southern Gaza.
“Zainab has been in and out of hospitals for the past three months,” his mother, Isla Abu Halib, told CNN on Saturday.
“I had to walk for over 30 minutes because there was no transport. The dirt road was very long and the weather was very hot, but I continued walking despite being hungry and lacking water.”
“All of a sudden she felt she had stopped moving and breathing. Her body was getting heavy,” Abu Halib said.
“I don’t know what to say anymore. Should a sinful baby like Zainab die of starvation so that the world can awaken?” she asked.
Zainab “died from complications of severe malnutrition,” said Dr Munir Al-Bursch, Ministry of Health, in a post in X.
“She wasted until she was skin on her bones. Over 260,000 children under the age of five in Gaza suffer from malnutrition,” said Al Burs.
The Health Ministry said Friday that 122 people have died of malnutrition in Gaza since the conflict began in 2023, including 83 children.
Most of these deaths came from early March when Israel refused to allow delivery of aid to Gaza to continue. The ban was partially lifted in late May, but aid agencies say the amount of aid distributed is needed by Gaza and they are not approaching what is spreading malnutrition.
A doctor from a borderless NGO said one-quarter children between six months and five years old who were screened at a Gaza facility last week, as well as pregnant or breastfeeding women, were malnourished. It said the number of people who were dealing with malnutrition has quadrupled since May 18th.
