Inside Gaza Strip hospitals, doctors’ work is no longer just about treating the injured and sick or saving lives that could be lost due to Israeli bombing. They now have to closely monitor children suffering from malnutrition, which has become an urgent need given the ongoing starvation and deprivation policies that Israel continues to enforce against the besieged area.
After nearly three years of relentless war on Gaza, Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, Nour Khaled, says that doctors are trying to save bodies weakened not only by illness but also by hunger. Children are arriving at hospitals underweight for their age since food in the market is scarce, and what is available comes at very high prices.
And the lady adds: “My daughter’s age is over 8 months, and her weight is now 5 kilograms due to malnutrition, at a time when it should be around 10 kilograms or more. I lived through the suffering of the two major famines that the region experienced during the war.”
Next to her sits another woman, watching over the treatment of her daughter Nour (9 years old), whom doctors described as suffering from a ‘severe malnutrition crisis’ due to famine. She also suffers from ‘wheat allergy,’ according to her mother, which requires a special diet and financial resources the family lacks.
Nour’s mother says that doctors told her that her daughter’s weight will continue to decrease unless she receives the necessary food, adding that her current weight is 19 kilograms, while it should be 30 kilograms according to the doctors. She continued that her daughter’s allergy requires avoiding legumes, wondering: “How is that possible when our entire diet depends on legumes?”
For his part, nutrition and digestive system specialist Dr. Mohammed Abu Raai says that they receive 30 cases daily at the outpatient nutrition clinic at Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, all suffering from malnutrition, which is divided into two types: acute and severe. He explains that acute malnutrition is treated by providing patients with nutritional supplements in cooperation with the various health institutions available, while severe malnutrition cases are admitted to the hospital, where they may have some side effects associated with malnutrition, such as vomiting and diarrhea.
According to the specialist doctor, weight is the first thing affected in children suffering from malnutrition. A one-year-old child is supposed to weigh 10 kilograms and be 75 centimeters tall, but what we find is much less than that. Some children suffer from famine and severe malnutrition, weighing around 6 kilograms, “which is a serious risk factor that reduces the child’s immunity and can lead to death.”
