The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continues to deepen, with Gaza mothers and babies starving amidst dwindling supplies of food, medical care, and essential resources. The ongoing conflict, compounded by blockades and restrictions on aid delivery, has precipitated severe malnutrition and life-threatening conditions for the most vulnerable groups—pregnant women, newborns, and young children. Hospitals are overwhelmed, nutritious food and baby formula are scarce, and healthcare infrastructure is crippled. This article provides an in-depth factual overview of the starvation crisis facing mothers and babies in Gaza, drawing on data and reports from medical professionals, humanitarian agencies, and local authorities as of mid-2025.
The scale of starvation and malnutrition among mothers and babies
Severe malnutrition has become widespread among infants and mothers in Gaza, causing critical health deteriorations and deaths. In hospitals like Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, children such as 11-month-old Sela Majdi Barbakh weigh significantly less than normal—Sela weighed only 8 pounds when she should weigh around 20, showing extreme wasting and muscle loss. Mothers, unable to feed themselves properly due to food scarcity, often cannot produce enough breast milk to nourish their babies, forcing families to rely on baby formula that is largely unavailable due to stringent blockades and supply disruptions.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports a surge in deaths related to malnutrition, with 122 fatalities recorded since the outbreak of conflict in October 2023; 83 of these were children. Hospitals treating malnourished infants and their mothers face shortages of essential nutrients, such as vitamin D and iron, further compounding patients' precarious health. Around 9% of Gaza’s children are severely malnourished, reflecting hunger’s deadly grip on the population, according to the World Health Organization.
Pregnant women in Gaza are severely underweight and anemic due to prolonged food insecurity, increasing risks of premature labor and birth complications. Lack of access to prenatal care further endangers both mothers and babies. UNICEF reports a dramatic drop in the birth rate for the first half of 2025, with births declining by 41% compared to the prior year—from 29,000 births to just 17,000 in the same period—signaling the dire conditions facing pregnant women.
Healthcare crisis: Overburdened facilities and lack of supplies
The healthcare infrastructure in Gaza is on the brink of collapse, deeply affecting care for mothers and babies. Facilities such as the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are severely under-resourced. For example, Al-Helou Hospital in northern Gaza currently has only 36 incubators—a stark reduction from 126 before October 2023. Overcrowding leads to multiple babies sharing one incubator, raising the risks of infection and lowering survival chances, particularly for premature infants.
Essential medical equipment—ultrasound machines, X-ray devices, and even basic supplies like infant formula—is critically lacking. Power outages caused by fuel shortages frequently interrupt oxygen supplies vital for newborns in intensive care, resulting in avoidable infant deaths. On July 14, 2025, a premature baby died in Al-Helou Hospital after a power cut severed the oxygen supply.
Care providers promote breastfeeding, but malnourished mothers struggling to feed themselves cannot always nourish their infants adequately, especially given the lack of alternate food sources. Mothers also face logistical challenges, such as having to travel long distances on foot or dealing with resource shortages that keep them from tending to newborns as frequently as needed.
These healthcare challenges extend beyond neonatal care. Pregnant women face heightened risks due to poor living conditions—overcrowded shelters without clean water or sanitation make pregnancies more dangerous, often undetected until emergency complications occur. With disrupted prenatal health services and repeated displacement, mothers and babies often endure life-threatening conditions without adequate medical intervention.
The human toll: Psychological and nutritional trauma
The starvation crisis is not only physical but also psychological, affecting families gravely. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warns of "catastrophic birth outcomes," emphasizing that the mountains of stress, starvation, and collapsing healthcare pose long-term dangers to an entire generation's survival. Many newborns arrive prematurely, underweight, or requiring intensive care—33% of births recorded fell into these categories. At least 20 infants have died within 24 hours of birth amidst these conditions.
The severe malnutrition among mothers directly correlates with poor birth outcomes. Anemia and undernourishment also increase the likelihood of pregnancy complications, including premature labor. Psychological trauma from ongoing conflict, displacement, and deprivation imposes additional strain on mothers’ health and parenting capacity, undermining infant development and family well-being.
The ripple effects extend within homes and communities, where malnutrition spirals into increased incidence of infections and delayed childhood growth milestones. Infants’ immune systems are extremely vulnerable under these conditions, and malnourished children face heightened risk for diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea, which often prove fatal in absence of timely medical care.
Constraints on aid delivery and their consequences
The worsening starvation among mothers and babies is tightly linked to impeded humanitarian aid deliveries. The Israeli blockade severely restricts food, medical supplies, fuel, and baby formula into Gaza, constraining the response capacity of aid agencies. Humanitarian convoys face delays and seizures, and hospitals often report critical shortages of emergency feeding supplies required for malnourished children.
Since July 17, centers specialized in treating severe acute malnutrition have become overwhelmed, lacking adequate supplies to meet demands. Aid organizations like Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) seek to provide nutritional support but struggle against limited access and resupply constraints.
The scarcity of baby formula and specialized nutrition places many families in a desperate situation. Malnourished infants who cannot be breastfed rely heavily on formula, which is increasingly unavailable due to import restrictions and destroyed infrastructure.
Access bottlenecks also exacerbate health outcomes: pregnant women cannot receive routine antenatal services, newborns cannot access timely care, and malnourished children are denied vital treatments. Compounded by fuel shortages, essential medical equipment frequently shuts down, disrupting oxygen supplies and sterilization processes, increasing mortality.
Aid agencies and local health authorities repeatedly call for unimpeded and sustained humanitarian corridors, ceasefires, and removal of restrictions to prevent further starvation and loss of life. The United Nations and UNICEF emphasize that without immediate action, the crisis will escalate further, costing thousands more mothers and infants their lives.
Consequences of prolonged conflict
The profound consequences of prolonged conflict in Gaza are starkly illustrated by the severe humanitarian crisis currently unfolding, particularly the starvation and suffering of mothers and babies. This vulnerability emerges as a tragic consequence of persistent hostilities, strict blockades, and severely restricted humanitarian aid access—factors interconnected and mutually reinforcing in devastating ways.
Since the intensification of conflict beginning in October 2023, over 58,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including more than 17,900 children, with injuries exceeding 139,600, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health data collated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This loss of life is only a part of the broader humanitarian catastrophe impacting nearly every facet of life in Gaza.
The relentless violence has led to massive internal displacement, with approximately 1.9 million people—about 90% of Gaza’s population—displaced often multiple times, confined increasingly to increasingly smaller areas due to military restrictions and evacuation orders. Over 86% of Gaza’s territory is reported now to be designated as Israeli-military zones, areas unsafe or off-limits for civilians, resulting in severe overcrowding and squalid living conditions, heightening risks of disease transmission and starvation.
One of the most vulnerable groups facing catastrophic consequences are Gaza’s mothers and newborns. Severe malnutrition has escalated alarmingly, with hospitals reporting infants showing signs of extreme wasting, weighing far below healthy levels, and mothers suffering from malnourishment themselves, undermining their ability to breastfeed adequately. UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have documented a doubling in rates of severe acute malnutrition among children under five since the imposition of an 11-week blockade earlier in 2025. Approximately 9% of Gaza’s children are severely malnourished, and maternal malnutrition contributes to significant risks of premature births, low birth weight, and higher infant mortality.
The health care system in Gaza is pushed to near collapse, further exacerbating these dire nutritional circumstances. Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs), such as at Al-Helou Hospital, operate with drastically reduced capacity—only 36 incubators remain functional out of 126 pre-conflict. Power outages caused by fuel shortages frequently disrupt critical care, cutting oxygen supplies vital to the survival of premature and sick newborns, which has resulted in avoidable infant deaths. Medical supplies, infant formula, and essential equipment are scarce, forcing mothers and babies to endure life-threatening shortages.
Furthermore, the psychological and social impacts are profound. Mothers endure immense stress and trauma, which, combined with food insecurity, worsen pregnancy and newborn outcomes. UNFPA warns of catastrophic birth outcomes as a direct result of starvation, healthcare collapse, and psychological pressures. Babies born under these conditions are often premature and vulnerable, with some dying within 24 hours of birth from malnutrition or inadequate care. Malnutrition stunts physical and cognitive development, raising long-term concerns for an entire generation in Gaza.
The root causes of this suffering are inextricably tied to the protracted conflict and accompanying blockade. Israeli-imposed restrictions severely limit the import of food, fuel, medical supplies, and baby formula, while restrictions and insecurity impede humanitarian convoys. In July 2025 alone, nearly a third of coordinated aid deliveries were denied or impeded entry into Gaza, severely hampering relief efforts. This blockade has strangled Gaza’s food supply, causing a near-total depletion of nutritious and specialized food for vulnerable groups.
The situation on the ground is described as “catastrophic” by international aid agencies. Over 470,000 people face starvation, including many pregnant women and children seriously at risk of death without urgent aid. Overburdened humanitarian organizations try to deliver emergency food, water, and medical support, but the scale of need far exceeds what currently crosses into Gaza. Vulnerable mothers often lack access to prenatal care, safe shelter, and adequate nutrition, compounding risks of complications and infant mortality.
Fuel shortages compound every aspect of the crisis—from powering hospitals and incubators to pumping clean water and operating ambulances. The lack of fuel leads to frequent power outages that interrupt life-saving medical care and hygiene services, escalating risks of infections among malnourished mothers and newborns. Without immediate restoration of fuel and essential supplies, the health system risks complete breakdown, spelling even greater loss of life.
Beyond the immediate hunger and medical impacts, the repeated displacement and trauma strain the social fabric of communities. Overcrowded shelters and temporary camps heighten vulnerability to disease outbreaks such as pneumonia and diarrheal diseases, which are especially deadly for malnourished infants. The mental health toll on mothers, who face starvation and the loss of children, is immense and often overlooked but critical to recovery.
In light of these grave consequences, urgent and unimpeded humanitarian assistance is paramount. International organizations, including the United Nations, UNICEF, WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the International Rescue Committee, call for immediate ceasefires and removal of aid restrictions to allow essential supplies—food, medical equipment, baby formula, and fuel—to reach Gaza’s hospitals and vulnerable populations. Without sustained humanitarian corridors, the crisis will escalate, endangering tens of thousands more mothers and babies.
Furthermore, the restoration of healthcare infrastructure and comprehensive maternal-child health services is essential to mitigate ongoing mortality and support recovery. This includes ensuring neonatal care capacity, prenatal services, nutritional supplementation, and psychosocial support to mothers grappling with starvation and trauma.
The prolonged conflict and blockade have thus produced a humanitarian disaster of exceptional scale, with Gaza’s mothers and babies bearing a disproportionate share of the suffering. Severe malnutrition, collapsing medical care, and restricted access to food and essential supplies have placed the health and lives of this vulnerable group at critical risk. The consequences of delayed or insufficient aid will reverberate across generations.
Alleviating this crisis necessitates immediate international commitment to cease hostilities, restore supply chains, and prioritize the survival and well-being of Gaza’s mothers and infants. Only sustained humanitarian action and political solutions addressing the roots of the conflict can halt the cycle of starvation and death now gripping Gaza’s most vulnerable populations.