When children are deprived of sufficient food, cascades of health failures can follow quickly. Critical illness and death threaten, and even those who survive, can face life’s health challenges.

Young Palestinians, especially those under the age of 5, are especially vulnerable in Gaza’s belt, where Israel imposed limitations to helping in the whole war, sometimes completely excluding transitions. The biggest levels of malnutrition since the beginning of the war have been reported this summer, and its biggest city has officially starred officially under the hungry Panel of food safety expert.

Food and other critically needed supplies began to extinguish in Gaza in May after the 11-week blockade imposed by Israel. There was not enough. In July, food consumption has reached the lowest point since the beginning of the war, according to the integrated classification of the food phase, a group of experts supporting the UN who World Hunger Monitor.

Since then, it has been helpful in Gaza. But the lack of food is still widespread, and for some of the most endured gazans, the damage may have been done.

When the children are seriously malnourished, their bodies draw reserves to run the battle for survival. In the end, their organs begin to fall apart.

Sometimes they become scelly thin. The second time they swell. They can be lethargic to the point of motion and stop eating even if there is food, because the dish takes the energy they do not have. As their defense systems begin to collapse, they can suddenly die of common diseases that could withstand a healthier child.

It happens with a malnourished body.

When children experience acute malnutrition, most regular foods will not reverse the procedure.

The World Health Organization recommends that acutely malnourished children feed on thick energy, such as nuts of nuts and sweet potatoes, and sometimes can be found locally.

But they are not always available in Gaza, where markets and farms have been destroyed. Children need specially formulated therapeutic food there: enriched milk, for very young children or peanut -based products full of calories, vitamins and nutrients. WHO also recommends a wide spectrum antibiotic for the treatment of infections.

The most serious malnourished children must be treated in the hospital, partly because they do not have appetite and their bodies are trying to preserve energy. These children feed on specially formulated milk, often through the nos-gastric pipe.

Sharif Matar, a pediatrician at the Al-Ratis Children’s Hospital in N Although it is now available more than before and a month ago, healthcare professionals are still found to be sure that the hardest cases have enough, he said in an interview at the end of August.

“We are trying to do our best with what we can,” said Dr. Matar. “But in terms of quality or amount of what is available, that’s not enough.”

Through the war, Israeli officials were consistently declining the seriousness of hunger in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamina Netanyahua’s Office invited The recent Declaration of Hunger in the City of Gaza “Direct Lie” and said that the experts overlooked Israeli’s efforts from the end of July to bring more food to the territory behind the hunger report.

However, help officers say these measures are less than what is needed. During the first two weeks of August, the UN announced that nearly 6,000 children of more than 58,000 were found to have been acutely malnourished.

Gaza doctors are not used to handling such acute malnutrition, said Dr. Matar, because the enclave never faced the crisis. Some clinicists at his hospital attended the emergency rooms organized by WHO, while others tried to read everything they could about how to treat it, he said.

Gaza health officers say dozens of children have died of failure to be relentless from June, but it is not clear how much they have suffered from malnutrition and other diseases or existing conditions. Children who suffer from malnutrition can be more sensitive to contracting other diseases, and children with existing conditions can be more sensitive to become malnourished, experts say.

Some of the treasures of the healing have recovered, including a critically sick five -year -old girl who has been saved by therapeutic milk, said Dr. Matar.

For a baby, food is not just energy for the day. It is an important building block for the coming life, necessary for the development of muscles, bones and brain.

Even if children who experience strong malnutrition receive effective treatment and survive, they can suffer from stunned growth, soft bones, liver and kidney problems and cognitive problems. In the long run, it can be an increased risk of stroke, diabetes and heart disease.

Considering the widespread deficiency of food in gauze, even one child can sometimes feel Sisifean, said Jamil Suleiman, Director of the Al-Renti Children’s Hospital. Some have been released from worries to tent camps where their parents are still struggling to find enough food, said Dr. Suleiman.

“Some of the children we release come back with the same problems a week later,” he said.