Children in Gaza are dying of malnutrition: we need a ceasefire now
Last month, a baby in the US city of Philadelphia received treatment calibrated to his genetic code, offering relief for his life threatening disease.1 Yet at a time of such stunning scientific advances, elsewhere babies are dying for want of the most basic commodity: food. Recently, I learnt of 4 month old baby Jenan and her mother Aya.2 Our team spoke to Aya at a clinic in Gaza where she was seeking treatment for Jenan’s diarrhoea and acute malnutrition, which she had been facing for three months. Later that day, Aya woke up to find her baby had died beside her. The lactose-free nutritional supplements she needed were not available. Ultimately, the combination of the malnutrition and diarrhoea was deadly. As this, and countless other tragic stories, show, when food is scarce, children face a higher risk of dying from starvation than adults. For their young bodies to grow, they need more nutrients, yet they have smaller reserves to draw on.3 Without nutritious food, they become more v
