Huda Abu al Naja, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl who suffered from malnutrition for months, has died in Nasser Hospital in Gaza, according to The Times of Israel.
Warning: This article contains images that some readers may find distressing.
Huda died of a “simple infection” on Friday that her immune system, weakened by months of malnutrition, could not fight off, the paper reported, citing a journalist from another Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.
When a Sky News team visited the hospital in July, they were told Huda had lost half her body weight since March.
Her mother said her needs were simple: fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and a bit of meat – but there was “virtually nothing to eat” after Israel shut the crossings into Gaza, and imposed a blockade.
Many of the children in the malnutrition ward she was on were being given dextrose in the absence of food – a mixture of sugar and water which has no nutritional value.
Ongoing restrictions on the entry of food aid have created a famine in Gaza City, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and aid agencies, with mass hunger throughout the rest of the territory.
Data from Israeli border officials shows that the amount of food entering Gaza has frequently been below the “bare minimum” that the UN’s famine-review agency says is necessary to meet basic needs.
In July, Huda said she knew she didn’t look well.
“Before, I used to look like this,” Huda said, pointing to a picture on her tablet.
“The war changed me. Malnutrition has turned my hair yellow because I lack protein. You see here, this is how I was before the war.”
She was pleading for help.
“Can you help me travel abroad for treatment? I want to be like you. I’m a child. I want to play and be like you,” she said.
International organisations had been campaigning for months before her death to secure her evacuation from the Gaza Strip, Haaretz reported.
To date, Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry says 461 people have died from malnutrition, including 157 children.
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As part of Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, Israel has agreed to reopen five border crossings to help with the flow of food and other aid supplies into Gaza.
Israel’s defence body overseeing aid, COGAT, said the amount entering Gaza was expected to rise to around 600 trucks each day, starting on Sunday.
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Egypt said it was also sending 400 trucks on Sunday, with many pictured near the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza.
They were seen queuing at the border and getting mobbed by dozens of people in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, where Nasser Hospital is based.
