<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em><strong><span>Some readers may find the details in this story distressing</span></strong></em></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A mother pressed a final kiss to what remained of her five-month-old daughter and wept.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Esraa Abu Halib's baby now weighed less than when she was born.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/at-least-11-people-were-stabbed-at-a-walmart-in-michigan-and-a-suspect-is-in-custody/25e5bf8e-97ea-4769-86fd-3718e8366a50"><strong><span>Multiple people stabbed in US Walmart, suspect taken into custody</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The baby was brought to the paediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She was already dead.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/gaza-israel-hamas-war-child-to-starve-to-death/e7a85678-6ddd-4bca-97c8-9bb113e1de4e" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He could count the bones of her chest.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The girl had weighed over three kilograms when she was born, her mother said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When she died, she weighed less than two kilograms.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A doctor said it was a case of “severe, severe starvation.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam’s stance.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>She needed special formula</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza during the war, according to the latest toll released by the territory’s Health Ministry on Saturday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It said 127 people had died of malnutrition-related causes overall, with the adult deaths counted in just the past few weeks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza," Zainab's father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital’s courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/cambodia-and-thailand-agree-to-ceasefire-talks-after-days-of-crossborder-fighting/7396b41c-4ce2-4633-9468-4217eda2e86b"><strong><span>Cambodia and Thailand agree to ceasefire talks after days of cross-border fighting</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow's milk.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said she hadn't suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhea and vomiting.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She wasn’t able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>'Many will follow'</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The child's family, like many of Gaza's Palestinians, lives in a tent, displaced.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“With my daughter’s death, many will follow,” she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“Their names are on a list that no one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Her loose robe hid her own weight loss.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The arrival of children suffering from malnutrition has surged in recent weeks, al-Farah said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>His department, with a capacity of eight beds, has been treating about 60 cases of acute malnutrition.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They have placed additional mattresses on the ground.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Another malnutrition clinic, affiliated with the hospital, receives an average of 40 cases weekly, he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths,” he warned.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Doctors and aid workers in Gaza blame Israel’s restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Food security experts warn of famine in the territory of over two million people.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>‘Shortage of everything’</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for two-and-a-half months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Since then, it has allowed in around 4500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel's Foreign Ministry said last week.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel says baby formula has been included, plus formula for special needs.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Separately, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centres distributing boxes of food supplies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than 1000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Much of Gaza's population now relies on aid.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“There was a shortage of everything,” the mother of Zainab said as she grieved.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“How can a girl like her recover?”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Late on Saturday, Israel’s foreign ministry announced that a humanitarian pause would begin on Sunday morning in parts of Gaza to allow for more aid delivery, and it added: “Israel rejects the false accusations of ‘starvation’ propaganda initiated by Hamas which manipulates pictures of children suffering from terminal diseases. It is shameful.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Apple App Store</span></em></strong></a><span> </span><strong><em><span>and</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU&amp;pli=1" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Google Play</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>.</span></em></strong></div></div>