Displaced from northern Gaza, a 7-month-old boy lies covered in painful sores as his mother struggles to keep him alive with no access to clean water, food, or medicine
On the rooftop of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza’s Mawasi district, Umm Mohammed al-Masri cradles her frail 7-month-old son. Ramadan’s tiny body is restless from fever, his skin covered in blistering sores that spread each day. The heat is suffocating, the water is contaminated, and there is nothing she can do to stop his suffering.
“We fled Beit Hanoun to escape the bombing,” she says quietly, her eyes fixed on her son. “Now my baby is dying in my arms because of dirty water and no medicine. Doctors told me it’s a bacterial infection in the blood. They gave him antibiotics, but nothing worked. It’s spreading everywhere.”
Ramadan is one of many children in Gaza enduring a deadly mix of war, hunger, and disease. His family eats bread with dukkah—a simple blend of wheat and spices—because milk, diapers, and clean drinking water are gone. “My husband leaves early in the morning to look for food,” she says. “He risks his life and still comes home with nothing.”
Hospitals in Gaza have all but collapsed under the strain. Medicines and diagnostic tools are scarce, corridors are lined with patients lying on the floor, and exhausted doctors work without the equipment they need to save lives.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 103 children have died from malnutrition since January, while 500 infants suffer from acute nutritional deficiencies. More than 28,000 cases of malnutrition have been recorded this year alone. Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed 18,430 children and 9,300 women, including 8,505 mothers.
The crisis deepened on March 2, when Israel sealed all crossings into the enclave, blocking humanitarian aid despite relief trucks waiting at the border. What little is allowed falls far short of the population’s needs. Over two million Palestinians have been displaced for nearly two years, crammed into shelters and tents where disease spreads quickly.
Looking down at her son, Umm Mohammed’s voice trembles: “Two years of war, and nothing changes. My baby is fading away before my eyes, and I can’t save him. All I can do is beg the world to look at him and to act.”
The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal war in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, killing more than 61,700 Palestinians.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
