Analysis: The forced starvation of Gaza's children will have profound, long-term and generational health consequences for survivors
By Aileen Kennedy, Liz O'Sullivan TU Dublin and Clare Patton, University of Leeds
When warnings of famine are given, we often think of natural disasters, severe climate events or crop failure. But in Gaza, famine is no accident of nature. It is the direct outcome of political decisions by Israel and their allies.
Since March 2nd, 2025, Israel has imposed a near-total blockade on Gaza, halting the entry of food, fuel, and medical aid. Nearly 500,000 Palestinians are now facing catastrophic levels of hunger, with projections that 71,000 children will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. The forced starvation of Gaza’s children is not a consequence of circumstance, but a political act.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, 'worst it has ever been': James Elder from UNICEF discusses the plight of starving children in Gaza
Feeding infants in a warzone
Before the most recent intensification of Israel’s occupation and encirclement of Gaza, infant feeding in the region was already challenged by poverty, conflict, and food insecurity. In 2019/2020, exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), as recommended by the World Health Organization, was practiced by only 44.8% of mothers in Gaza and 41.9% in the West Bank.
These pre-existing vulnerabilities have now been compounded by the complete destruction of Gaza's food and health systems. Since October 2023, Israel’s blockade and bombing campaign has decimated farmland, disrupted supply chains, and targeted bakeries, hospitals, and aid convoys. Gaza has since entered what many experts describe as a "technical famine", with the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC) predicting Phase 5 conditions for nearly 500,000 Palestinians. "The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation", according to the IPC.
Starvation results in multiple forms of acute and chronic malnutrition including wasting (rapid loss of muscle and fat tissue) as well as stunted growth from prolonged undernutrition. Malnutrition significantly weakens the immune systems and increases susceptibility to infections such as pneumonia and diarrhoea.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's News At One, 'more and more challenging every day': Denise Potvin from Médecins Sans Frontieres - Doctors Without Borders describes the situation on the ground in Gaza
These minor illnesses that are normally treatable can become life-threatening under these conditions and efforts required to fight these infections can put children at further risk of malnutrition. Furthermore, children are experiencing profound developmental impairments, including cognitive delays affecting learning and behaviour, as well as psychosocial issues.
Children without families or caregivers
This latest chapter of Israeli military aggression has orphaned or separated many infants from their families and caregivers. These babies are dying not just from hunger, but from dehydration, hypoglycaemia and lack of safe feeding options.
In a functioning health system, infants unable to breastfeed could receive commercial milk formula (CMF), clean water, and medical oversight. In Gaza, these things no longer exist. Without breast milk, clean water, or CMF that can be reconstituted and fed safely, infants are dying of dehydration and hypoglycaemia within days. Even breastfeeding mothers face impossible conditions, with many reportedly unable to produce sufficient milk due to starvation and dehydration. Those who can still face displacement, trauma and daily bombardment.
From RTÉ News in May 2025, aid trucks wait in Egypy as Israel says it will let food into Gaza
Long-term health consequences
History shows us that famine's impact is not limited to mortality in the moment. The Dutch Hunger Winter was caused by a Nazi blockade and lasted five months in 1944/45. It resulted in profound, long-term health consequences. Children born or conceived during the famine showed increased rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disorders, mental illness and even shortened lifespans.
Studies have confirmed that even the grandchildren of women pregnant during the Dutch Hunger Winter suffer metabolic and neurological effects, a legacy of starvation encoded epigenetically. Even the grandchildren of those starved during pregnancy showed increased risk of metabolic disorders, an example of what scientists now call intergenerational epigenetic harm. In Gaza, the blockade has lasted much longer and is far more total so it's not unreasonable to expect that the generational harm in Gaza may be even greater.
116,000 tons of food: the militarisation of aid
Under international humanitarian law, the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited. Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines it as a war crime. The deliberate denial of food, water, fuel, and medical supplies to infants and their caregivers clearly meets that threshold.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Gregg Carlstrom from The Economist on the background and operations of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
However, even when aid is allowed in, distribution has become militarised and dangerous. Currently, aid is distributed under the oversight of the Israeli military (IDF),and private US security contractors. These actors are neither neutral nor trained in humanitarian distribution, and they are not trusted by the population. This undermines not just access but safety.
On June 3rd, 27 Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces at a US-backed aid distribution site, while attempting to access food. Eyewitnesses described chaotic scenes. Since then, these food hubs were suspended operations and the IDF have declared the access routes to these hubs as 'combat zones'.
Humanitarian distribution must be conducted independently, by experienced organisations that understand famine response, crowd control and infant feeding logistics. Infants, children and families cannot access aid at gunpoint or in violent, chaotic environments. More than 116,000 metric tons of food aid, enough to feed one million people for up to four months, is already positioned in aid corridors at the borders, ready to be brought in. The humanitarian response must be restored to humanitarian actors.
This long-term damage will stretch across decades, generations and globally
The starvation of Gaza's babies is not a tragic accident; is a predictable outcome of deliberate political choices. This long-term damage will stretch across decades, generations and globally. We have the data.
We know what famine does to humans, and we’ve seen its scars from previous events in the Netherlands, China and Ethiopia. What we lack is not knowledge, but political will. As former Director of the WHO's Emergencies Programme Dr Mike Ryan said, "we are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza because if we don't do something about it, we are complicit."
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Dr. Aileen Kennedy is a Lecturer in Dietetics at TU Dublin. Dr Liz O'Sullivan is a Lecturer in Nutrition at TU Dublin, the Programme Chair of the BSc in Public Health Nutrition and coordinator of the WBTi-Ireland Core Group. Dr Clare Patton is a lecturer in law at University of Leeds.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
