BBC returns to Gaza’s baby left fasting from Israeli blockade

There is no excitement when the camera passes. The children are barely looking. What can surprise a child who lives among the dead, the dying, the wait to die? The hunger wore them.

They are waiting in queues for scarce rations or no one at all. They are used to my colleague and his camera, shooting for the BBC. He witnesses their hunger, their dying and the gentle packaging of their bodies – or fragments of their bodies – in white bites on which their names are written, if known.

For 19 months of war, and now under the renovated offensive of Israel, this local operator – whom I do not point out for his safety – heard the martyrled shouts of the survivors in the hospital yards.

His physical distance is respectful, but they are in his mind, day and night. He is one of them, caught in the same claustrophobic hell.

This morning he aims to find Sivar Ashur, a five -month -old girl whose Evaporated Frame and exhausted plumbing in Nasser Hospital In Han Hennis, he affected him so much when he was shooting there this month that he was writing to tell me that something had broken inside him.

She weighed just over 2 kg (4 pounds 6oz). A five -month girl should be about 6 kg or more.

Siwar has been written since then and is now home, my colleague has heard. This is what brings it out on the street of powdered houses and improvised shelters on canvas and corrugated iron.

He is demanding in difficult circumstances. A few days ago I sent messages to ask how it was doing. “I’m not well,” he replied. “Just a while ago, the Israeli army announced the evacuation of most Khan Eunice regions … We don’t know what to do – there is no safe place.

“Al Mavasi is extremely overcrowded with displaced people. We have lost and we have no idea what the right solution is at this time.”

He finds a one -bedroom shed, the entrance formed by a floral pattern, a gray and a black curtain. There are three mattresses, part of a chest with drawers and a mirror that reflects the sunlight on the floor in front of Sivar, her mother Nayva and her grandmother Reim.

Sivar is quiet, maintained by the protective presence of the two women. The baby cannot absorb a regular milk formula due to a strong allergic reaction. Under the conditions of war and an Israeli blockade upon arrival of helpThere is a severe shortage of the formula it needs.

23 -year -old Nasha explains that her condition stabilized when she was in Nasser hospital, so doctors throw her away with a can of baby formula a few days ago.

Now at home, she says that the baby’s weight has begun to slip away again. “The doctors told me that Siwar has improved and is better than before, but I think she is still skinny and has not improved much. They found only one can of milk and she (she) started to exhaust.”

The flies dance in front of Sivar’s face. “The situation is very terrible,” Nayva says, “the insects come to her, I have to cover her with a scarf so that nothing touches her.”

Sivar has been living with the sound of war since last November, when he was born. Artillery, rockets, falling bombs – distant and close. The fiery shooting, the blades of the Israeli drones swirled over their heads. Najwa explains: “She understands these things. The sound of the tank, military planes and rockets is so loud and they are close to us. When Sivar hears these sounds, she is startled and cries. If she sleeps, she woke up shocking and crying.”

Gaza doctors say that many young mothers say they cannot breastfeed their babies due to lack of eating. The problem with pouring is food and clean water.

Najwa has fallen apart when Sivar was born. She and her mother, Reame, are still hard for them to get something to eat. This is the struggle of every waking hour. “In our case, we cannot provide milk or diapers because of prices and border closure.”

On May 22, the Israeli military body COGAT said that there was no food shortage in Gaza. It says “significant amounts of baby food and bakery flour” have been imported into an enclave in recent days.

The agency has repeatedly insisted that Hamas steals help until the Israeli government said the war would continue until Hamas was destroyed and Israeli hostages held in Gaza were released. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 20 hostages seized by Hamas on October 7, 2023, they are thought to be alive and up to 30 other dead.

The help agencies, the organization of the United Nations and many foreign governments, including the UK, reject the comment of when there is no lack of food. US President Donald Trump also talks about people who “starve” in gas.

UN Secretary -General Antonio Guterres described the amount of help Israel allowed in gas as a “teaspoon”. He said that the Palestinians “withstand what may be the worst phase of this brutal conflict” with limited supplies of fuel, shelter, cooking gas and supplies for water purification.

According to 80% of the UN Gaza, it is now either designated as an Israeli militarized zone or a place where people were ordered to leave.

The refusals, the expressions of concern, the condemnations and the moments that seemed like a turning point come and go through all this war. The only constant is the suffering of 2.1 million Gaza people, with Nayva and her daughter Sivar.

“One doesn’t think about the future or the past,” Navy says.

There is only the present moment and how to survive it.

With additional reporting by Malak Hasun, Alice Deyard and Nick Millard.