WARNING UPSETTING: Nine-year-old Maryam Duvvas looks agonisingly thin while receiving treatment at a hospital in Gaza for severe malnutrition as the UN warns of “catastrophic hunger” in Palestine
Desperately harrowing images continue to emerge from within the Gaza Strip as many children are alarmingly ill with hunger.
A young Gazan girl has withered to skin and bone because of the food and water crisis gripping the Palestinian enclave. The haunting image shows nine-year-old Maryam Duvvas, who is now agonisingly thin as the UN warns of “catastrophic hunger” sweeping through Gaza. She is currently receiving treatment at Patient Friends Association Hospital in Gaza City and is in a critical condition with severe malnutrition.
The war-battered Gaza Strip is on the brink of “irreversible humanitarian collapse” it was claimed today as at least 41 Palestinians were killed since dawn. It comes after furious Bob Geldof issued a desperate plea on Sky News to save babies in Gaza.
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Gaza’s health officials said there have been six new deaths of locals from starvation or malnutrition, including a child, bringing the starvation toll to 184, including 94 children.
Aid workers say desperation is so severe that many residents risk approaching aid hubs despite fears of Israeli fire and being killed or wounded.
A local aid worker told al-Jazeera:“People are exhausted, malnourished and still willing to risk their lives to find food for their families.”
And an aid official reportedly claimed Gaza is “spiraling into collapse” without a ceasefire, adding: “The situation is beyond catastrophic.”
Six hundred retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, have asked US President Donald Trump to pressure Israel into ending war in Gaza.
They said in a statement: “It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel. Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering.”
At the weekend Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin told the Daily Mirror exclusively Trump is the only person who can force Netanyahu to end the war.
Their appeal comes amid reports that Netanyahu is pushing to expand military operations in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas have stalled. Israel launched war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack in southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken into Gaza as hostages.
The territory is also experiencing mass deprivation as a result of heavy restrictions imposed by Israel on what is allowed into Gaza.
And there are escalating fears thousands could die of hunger if the war is not brought to an end, allowing a major influx of aid to be distributed safely.
UN-backed agencies have said the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” in Gaza. The latest intervention by the top former Israeli officials came after harrowing videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages were released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that since the war began, at least 60,839 Palestinians have been killed and 149,588 wounded. Hamas said it is open to the International Committee of the Red Cross delivering supplies to Israeli hostages if Israel opens “humanitarian corridors” for Gaza’s civilians. Around 50 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, including just 20 who are believed still to be alive.