Gaza’s doctors are starving while trying to save starving children

Gaza’s doctors are starving while trying to save starving children (Image: AFP)

In Gaza’s collapsing health system, hunger now haunts not just patients but also those trying to save them. At Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, Dr. Mohammad Saqer fainted during a shift this week from sheer hunger. Revived with juice by a colleague, he went back to work. He’s not alone—many doctors and nurses across Gaza are collapsing at work, their bodies giving in during 24-hour shifts without food, CNN reported.

Only one meal a day, if they’re lucky

At Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Hospital in northern Gaza, hospital director Dr. Fadel Naim said even one meal a day is a luxury. Doctors are operating without basic nutrition. Hospital kitchens have run out of supplies, and international food services that once supported staff have shut down. A shared bowl of plain rice has become a day’s only meal for two people. With aid scarce and salaries unpaid, even medical professionals now queue for rations—often in vain.

Children too weak to cry

The paediatric ward at Nasser Hospital is filled with skeletal infants. Many no longer cry—they are too weak. Mothers, themselves visibly malnourished, try to feed their children formula and supplements that no longer exist in Gaza. The hospital has run out of baby formula, and doctors report multiple deaths due to malnutrition. “In this room alone, four children have died from hunger,” one mother told CNN. “I’m terrified mine will be the fifth.”

900,000 children now face hunger

The scale of Gaza’s hunger crisis is staggering. According to Gaza’s health ministry, 900,000 children are going hungry, and over 70,000 are already showing signs of malnutrition. Doctors Without Borders reported a threefold spike in severe malnutrition among children under five in just two weeks. The lack of food has long-term effects—doctors say many children now face permanent damage to brain development and immunity, even if they survive this crisis.

Food costs spiral as wages disappear

Even for those still earning, food is unaffordable. Dr. Saqer paid 310 shekels (₹7,000 or $92) for just 2kg of flour—enough to last three days. The average Gaza worker earned less than $13 per day before the war. Doctors say they are treating patients while worrying constantly about their own starving families. Some haven’t seen loved ones for months, afraid they’ll lose them to hunger or bombs if they leave the hospital.

A system overwhelmed and ignored

The entire population of Gaza is now classified as food insecure, according to the UN. Attempts by Israel and the U.S. to deliver food via the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have resulted in violence, with over 1,000 Palestinians reportedly killed while trying to access aid. Meanwhile, many in the Israeli government deny the hunger crisis even exists. Aid groups and the WHO insist that famine is not just unfolding—it’s man-made.