‘Local sports champion': Palestinian boy, 17, dies of starvation in Gaza
Atef Abu Khater, 17, died on Saturday, a source at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told Al Jazeera.
His weight had dropped from 70kg (154lbs) to just 25kg (55lbs) when he died, his family said – roughly what a nine-year-old child should weigh.
'We hear from his family members and others who knew him that he used to be a local sports champion. He ended up losing a lot of weight, becoming acutely malnourished, and ultimately dying,' Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported from Gaza City.
'He was one of thousands of severe malnutrition cases throughout Gaza.'
Footage shared online and verified by Al Jazeera showed Abu Khater's relatives saying goodbye. In it, the boy's emaciated body could be seen in an open white body bag, his face turned away from the camera.
His cheekbones protruded in the absence of any fat, giving him a gaunt appearance. A relative could be seen running his finger along each bone on the boy's ribcage, which is clearly visible due to malnutrition.
Journalist Wisam Shabat, who posted the video on his Instagram account, said Abu Khater arrived at the hospital in a very critical condition, suffering from severe complications due to lack of food and medical care, before he passed away.
The 17-year-old is among at least seven Palestinians who have died of malnutrition in the past 24 hours across Gaza, the director of al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera.
At least 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of starvation and malnutrition across the territory since Israel's war began in October 2023, according to the latest Gaza Health Ministry figures.
UN and other humanitarian officials say Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries, though partially lifted in recent days, have left Palestinians starving and struggling to find enough food to feed their families.
Amid growing international condemnation of the crisis, Israel has said it is increasing aid deliveries to Palestinians, including via airdrops.
But humanitarian groups say airdrops are dangerous and inefficient, and they have called on Israel to open up all the crossings into Gaza to allow assistance to flow freely to Palestinians in need.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said on Saturday that 'the manmade famine in Gaza has been largely shaped by the deliberate attempts to replace' UN aid systems with a contentious, US and Israeli-backed group called the GHF.
Israeli forces have routinely fired on Palestinians trying to get food at GHF-run distribution sites in Gaza, and the UN reported this week that more than 1,300 aid seekers have been killed since the group began operating in May.
Lazzarini also accused Israel of actively preventing the UN and other humanitarian groups from delivering lifesaving aid to Palestinians, in what he described as 'a deliberate measure to collectively pressure and punish Palestinians for living in Gaza'.
'No time to waste anymore, a political decision must be made to unconditionally open the crossings', the UNRWA chief said in a post on X.
Children 'dying slowly'
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinian families continue to search for food and other desperately needed supplies across Gaza.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said dozens of people, including infants, are 'dying slowly due to forced starvation by Israel'.
'One of them is Misk al-Madhoun, a malnourished five-year-old whose parents have no way of feeding her. They say they are seeing her dying slowly every single day,' said Khoudary, adding that parents are doing all they possibly can for their children.
'We've met with mothers who are giving their babies water instead of milk because they do not have any other option,' she said.
'We're also still seeing Palestinian parents walking very long distances in the heat daily to look for any hot meal kitchen or distribution point. Even if they go to the GHF sites, they risk being killed, wounded or coming home empty-handed.'
On Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring system, warned that the 'worst-case scenario of famine' was unfolding in Gaza.
'Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,' it said in a report.
'Amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Every child under five in Gaza at risk of malnourishment, says UN
The United Nations has warned that all children of Gaza under the age of five are at risk of life-threatening malnourishment, amid growing reports of starvation-related deaths as Israel continues to block aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip. The UN's World Food Programme said children in this age bracket – around 320,000 in number – have been affected by the collapse of nutrition services and are lacking access to safe water, breast milk substitutes and therapeutic feeding. Paediatrician Seema Jilani told Al Jazeera that malnutrition 'affects their entire body', putting children at risk of multi-organ failure. She also said that starvation in Gaza is traumatic for children and that 'developmental milestones will be missed'. Hospitals in Gaza on Monday recorded six new deaths from famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including one child, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The total number of people who died from hunger-related causes since the start of the war now stands at 181, including 94 children. The ministry also sounded the alarm over a 'serious escalation' in cases of acute soft paralysis among children as a result of 'infections and acute malnutrition'. In a statement, it said it has so far recorded three deaths from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare condition that causes sudden numbness and muscle weakness in most of the body. Entry of over 22,000 aid trucks blocked Gaza's government said Israel was deliberately blocking more than 22,000 humanitarian aid trucks from entering the territory as part of a systematic campaign of 'starvation, siege and chaos'. The Palestinian territory has been under total Israeli blockade since March 2, shortly before Israel ended a two-month ceasefire and resumed attacks. Mosab al-Dibs, 14, has been at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for about two months after suffering a severe head injury when an Israeli air raid struck his family's tent in May. The boy is largely paralysed and severely malnourished because the facility no longer has supplies to feed him. 'Mosab now suffers from severe malnutrition,' his mother, Shahinaz al-Dibs, said. 'He suffers convulsions as a result of a hit that affected his brain. Even his nerves are stiff.' The situation in Gaza was nothing short of catastrophic. by Ahmad Alhendawi, Middle East director of Save the Children International At a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza, Samah Matar said her sons – six-year-old Yousef and four-year-old Amir – have cerebral palsy and need a special diet. Youssef weighed 14kg (31lb) before the war. Now, he weighs 9kg (20lb). Amir, who weighed 9kg (20lb), is now less than 6kg (13lb). 'Before the war, their health was excellent,' she said. 'Now, there is no baby formula or diapers, and I can hardly find flour for them. Sugar, the main ingredient in their meals, is unavailable.' Ahmad Alhendawi, Middle East director of Save the Children International, told Al Jazeera that the situation in Gaza was 'nothing short of catastrophic.' 'This is about almost four months of this blockade, of starvation that has built over weeks and months, and to come back from that point of extreme malnutrition and starvation requires a sustained supply of food and medical equipment and also food supplements for children in need,' he said. 'It's possible to reverse some [of the damage done to children by hunger], but I'm afraid that some of this damage would be irreversible at this stage.'
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Israel forces shoot Palestinian boy in eye at aid site amid Gaza starvation
A Palestinian teenager, shot in the eye by Israeli forces while desperately seeking food for his family near a United States and Israeli-backed GHF site in Gaza, is unlikely to regain sight in his left eye, doctors treating him have said, as the population of the besieged and bombarded enclave suffers from forced starvation. Fifteen-year-old Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Israeli soldiers kept shooting at him even after he was struck by a bullet, making him think 'this was the end' and 'death was near'. Relaying the harrowing chain of events from a hospital bed with a white bandage covering one eye, Abu Jazar said he went to the site around 2am (23:00 GMT). 'It was my first time going to the distribution point,' he said. 'I went there because my siblings and I had no food. We couldn't find anything to eat.' He says he moved forward with the crowd until he reached al-Muntazah Park in the Gaza City environs about five hours later. 'We were running when they began shooting at us. I was with three others; three of them were hit. As soon as we started running, they opened fire. Then I felt something like electricity shoot through my body. I collapsed to the ground. I felt as though I had been electrocuted … I didn't know where I was, I just blacked out. When I woke up, I asked people 'Where am I?'' Others near Abu Jazar told him he had been shot in the head. 'They were still firing. I got scared and started reciting prayers.' A doctor at the hospital held a phone light near the boy's wounded eye and asked him if he could see any light. He could not. The doctor diagnosed a perforating eye injury caused by a gunshot wound. Abu Jazar underwent surgery and said, 'I hope my eyesight will return, God willing.' Hospitals receive bodies of more aid seekers Gaza's Health Ministry reports that 119 bodies, including 15 recovered from under the rubble of destroyed buildings or other places, and 866 wounded Palestinians have arrived at the enclave's hospitals over the past 24 hours. At least 65 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid, and 511 more were wounded. Israeli forces have routinely fired on Palestinians trying to get food at GHF-run distribution sites in Gaza, and the United Nations reported this week that more than 1,300 aid seekers have been killed since the group began operating in May. In the meantime, the UN office in Geneva has warned that one million women and girls in Gaza are now starving, as the territory's humanitarian crisis grows more dire. In a post on X, the UN said: 'This horrific situation is unacceptable and must end.' Gaza's famine and malnutrition crisis has been worsening by the day, with at least 175 people, including 93 children, now confirmed dead from the man-made starvation of Israel's punishing blockade, according to the territory's Health Ministry. More than 6,000 Palestinian children are being treated for malnutrition resulting from the blockade, according to the Global Nutrition Cluster, which includes the UN health and food agencies.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Israeli forces kill 62 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn, medics say
Sixty-two Palestinians, most of them aid seekers, have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since dawn on Saturday, hospital sources in the besieged enclave have told Al Jazeera. The death toll includes 38 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution sites operated by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The deaths are the latest killings reported near GHF-operated sites, despite Israel's announcement last week that it would begin implementing 'tactical pauses' in fighting in some areas to allow Palestinians greater access to humanitarian aid. Israel announced the start of the daily pauses in military operations on July 27. However, 105 Palestinians were killed while seeking food on Wednesday and Thursday alone, the United Nations Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory said on Friday. As of Friday, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid, according to the human rights office. Another 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of starvation or malnutrition since the start of Israel's war in October 2023, according to figures from Gaza's Ministry of Health. Palestinians in the enclave have reported numerous cases of Israeli soldiers and American security contractors hired by the GHF deliberately firing on aid seekers in the vicinity of the distribution sites. Facing growing international condemnation over the conditions in Gaza, Israel has in recent days allowed airdrops of aid into the enclave by countries including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Spain, Germany and France. But humanitarian groups, including the UN aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, have warned that the airdrops are insufficient and called on Israel to facilitate the free flow of assistance via land. Gaza's Government Media Office said that just 36 aid trucks entered the enclave on Saturday, far short of the 600 trucks it said were needed to meet the humanitarian needs of the population. In Khan Younis, a Palestine Red Crescent Society staffer was killed and three others wounded by an Israeli attack on its headquarters, according to the aid group. 'One Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) staff member was killed and three others injured after Israeli forces targeted the Society's headquarters in Khan Younis, igniting a fire on the building's first floor,' the PRCS said in a post on X on Saturday. Reporting from central Gaza's Deir el-Balah earlier on Saturday, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said that Palestinians have not seen any improvement in their situation despite the recent deliveries of aid. 'In the markets, you barely find food. Whatever is available is very, very expensive, and Palestinians are still forced to risk their lives to get whatever they can get,' Khoudary said. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, on Saturday said Gaza was experiencing a famine that had been 'largely shaped' by the attempts to replace the UN-led aid system with the 'politically motivated' GHF. 'Sidelining & weakening UNRWA has nothing to do with claims of aid diversion to armed groups. It is a deliberate measure to collectively pressure & punish Palestinians for living in Gaza,' Lazzarini said in a post on X. UNICEF has warned that malnutrition in Gaza has exceeded the threshold for famine, with 320,000 young children among those at risk of acute malnutrition. 'We are at a crossroads, and the choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die,' Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said in a statement on Friday after a recent visit to Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
