A mother and her malnourished baby
Gaza City residents vow to remain as Israel eyes full occupation
In spite of the harsh and realities of Gaza Strip and Israel’s bent on full occupation, the people have insisted they would not leave their land.
Indeed, living amotherhood in the Gaza Strip is no longer about care and nurturing—it has become a daily battle for survival, waged by women under inhumane conditions imposed by the ongoing Israeli blockade and genocidal war.
Amid the total collapse of Gaza’s food infrastructure and healthcare, mothers and pregnant women face a shocking reality: either feed their children expired milk or let them fall prey to hunger; either eat hedgehog and turtle meat or face slow death from malnutrition and starvation.
Since the beginning of March, the Israeli occupation has enforced a complete closure of the Gaza Strip, banning the entry of food and humanitarian aid, and creating a severe and ongoing famine.
Inside a tent in a shelter centre west of Gaza City, Maysaa Taffash, 31, cradled her five-month-old infant Yusuf, whose small body was trembling from extreme hunger.
Taffash told The New Arab, as she tried to quiet her crying child, “Yusuf hasn’t tasted milk for two weeks. I have nothing left to feed him but boiled water with a bit of wild herbs.”
She had tried to find a can of baby formula for Yusuf but failed. And when she did find it, the price was far beyond her means.
Before the war, a can of baby formula cost only about 20 shekels (around $6). Now, it has completely disappeared from pharmacy shelves, and when it does sporadically appear in the black market, it sells for 250 shekels ($74)—a staggering price for most Gaza residents.
Taffash’s family lives without any source of income. The war turned her husband into an unemployed man after the sewing factory where he worked in the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood of Gaza City was destroyed. Now, the family relies almost entirely on food aid.
Feeling helpless, she said in a desperate tone, “I feel like a failure as a mother. My baby cries from hunger, and I can’t feed him. What did he do to deserve this? Has milk become an unattainable dream?”
About a month ago, Maysaa was forced to sell her wedding ring to buy a can of formula for her child. “I bought the can in tears. I never imagined I’d have to sell my wedding ring to buy food for my son. But what could I do? I had no choice.”
But then the unexpected happened—the can of formula was expired. “Yet that didn’t stop me from feeding it to my starving child,” she remarked.
Yusuf gulped down the expired milk eagerly, while his mother watched him with a broken heart, worried about what tomorrow would bring. What would she do when this can run out—a situation she now faces. She added,
“What can I do? We have nothing left to sell for another can of milk. The war destroyed our home and left us with nothing.”
Despite the efforts of some international aid organisations, such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF, to bring baby formula into Gaza, these attempts face tragic obstacles.
Armed gangs intercept aid trucks and loot the formula, preventing it from reaching the mothers and children who desperately need it, all amid a lack of effective protection for these convoys.
Ismail al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, told TNA, “Israel deliberately bombs any protection personnel or escorts for these trucks, which spreads chaos and lawlessness, and prevents aid from reaching its rightful recipients.”
“This reality keeps food and milk out of the mouths of hungry children, despite the scenes of trucks entering through crossings, which only perpetuates and spreads the famine,” he added.
He noted that “this Israeli policy deliberately aims to weaken humanitarian corridors,” further stressing that what is happening in Gaza “is the engineering of famine through the tightening of the blockade and the creation of a chaotic environment that prevents life from continuing.”
The impact of the famine imposed by Israel is not limited to mothers who have recently given birth, but also extend to pregnant women who face a different but equally severe ordeal.
In a shelter camp in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, north of Gaza City, Abir Sabri, 32, four months pregnant, leaned against a pile of blankets, her hand on her belly as if trying to reassure her unborn child, while she looked at a small pot over a fire of wood, from which a strange smell wafted.
Sabri’s life has become endangered after she was diagnosed with acute malnutrition, and her pregnancy is at risk of miscarriage due to the lack of food and protein.
“I’m exhausted. I constantly feel dizzy. Sometimes I can’t stand. The doctor told me I need protein, but where can I find it? There is no meat, no eggs, not even milk in the markets,” she told TNA.
Pointing at the pot over the fire, Sabri said, “Can you believe this? It’s hedgehog meat. I never imagined I would eat it, but what can I do? I’m pregnant, my body is worn out from hunger, and I haven’t had a bite of meat in four months.”
Her husband, Mahmoud, decided to go hunting after hearing from a neighbour that turtles and hedgehogs appear near the sea and in dry fields at night.
Sabri described the moment, “My husband went out into the dark with a stick and knife. He came back hours later carrying a hedgehog. He told me: Don’t think—just eat. You and the baby are more important than anything else.”
“I looked at the hedgehog and felt fear and disgust, but my hunger and fear for my baby were stronger,”
Sabri said, and then rhetorically asked, “Is this our fate? To become like animals, hunting hedgehogs and turtles for food?”
The United Nations Population Fund warned in a statement on X on 8 July that up to 50,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza face severe hunger, with devastating consequences for newborns.
“These women haven’t eaten in days. Babies are being born prematurely and underweight,” the statement said.
“Mothers are suffering from extreme malnutrition, preventing them from breastfeeding, while baby formula is no longer available. Newborns are at risk of death or lifelong health issues,” the UN agency added.
The fund called for the urgent entry of life-saving aid into Gaza.
Ghada Al-Haddad, Media and Communications Officer at Oxfam in Gaza, told TNA that the organisation receives daily heartbreaking pleas from mothers and pregnant women who cannot find food for their hungry children, amid a systematic starvation policy targeting all segments of society.
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is the second humanitarian catastrophe in modern history. Famine is knocking on the doors of thousands of families. Children have nothing to eat, and pregnant women are eating the inedible to survive. The situation is unbearable,” Al-Haddad said.
“Families are searching through rubble for food scraps. Others have turned to eating hedgehogs and turtles. This is not a jungle—it’s one of the most densely populated areas in the world,” he added.
Al-Haddad explained that Israel’s systematic destruction of agricultural lands and water sources has worsened the food crisis and caused the spread of epidemics, at a time when most of Gaza’s population lives in worn-out tents after losing their homes.
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