The world is failing Gaza’s starving children, aid teams warn

As Israeli forces continued their push to take full control of Gaza City on Wednesday, reports emerged that another skeletal child whose plight was highlighted by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has now died. Her name was Jana and she was nine years old. A total of 151 children have perished through acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war – and the majority in 2025 – according to the latest figures from the Palestinian health authorities.

Announcing Jana’s death in an online video message, UNICEF Communication Manager Tess Ingram explained that she had been treated in hospital twice for the condition and recovered the first time in 2024, only to relapse and waste away on 17 September this year, amid continuing Israeli aid restrictions. “The world failed Jana so many times, failed her on food, twice,” Ms. Ingram insisted. “A little girl forced to endure so much pain because of deliberate decisions that were made to restrict the entry of food into the Gaza Strip.”

Ms. Ingram explained that UNICEF had originally evacuated Jana (pictured above) for treatment in southern Gaza more than a year ago and that she had recovered. “I remember holding her frail little hand and helping her into the ambulance,” she recalled.

Once Jana was better and discharged from hospital for the first time earlier this year, she and her mother, Nesma, returned to northern Gaza during the ceasefire to be with their family. But the aid blockade allowed hunger to return, claiming the life of Jana’s two-year-old sister, Jouri, in August. At the time, Ms. Ingram warned that Jana was “barely hanging on” in a Gaza City hospital where she was receiving treatment.

She also stressed that Gaza’s war-shattered health system was unable to give the child the care that she needed. “Her last hope, medical evacuation out of the Gaza Strip, failed her. No country stepped up and was able to get Jana out,” the UNICEF worker said.

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Source: The UN