Atef Abu Khater\u2019s weight dropped to just 25kg (55lbs) before he died of malnutrition, his family says
\nGaza City
\nA Palestinian teenager with no previous health conditions has starved to death in Gaza after being hospitalised, medical officials and relatives say, as people in the besieged enclave desperately struggle to find food amid Israel\u2019s continued blockade on aid.
\nAtef Abu Khater, 17, died on Saturday, a source at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told Al Jazeera.
\nHis weight had dropped from 70kg (154lbs) to just 25kg (55lbs) when he died, his family said \u2013 roughly what a nine-year-old child should weigh.
\n\u201cWe hear from his family members and others who knew him that he used to be a local sports champion. He ended up losing a lot of weight, becoming acutely malnourished, and ultimately dying,\u201d Al Jazeera\u2019s Hani Mahmoud reported from Gaza City.
\n\u201cHe was one of thousands of severe malnutrition cases throughout Gaza.\u201d
\nFootage shared online and verified by Al Jazeera showed Abu Khater\u2019s relatives saying goodbye. In it, the boy\u2019s emaciated body could be seen in an open white body bag, his face turned away from the camera.
\nHis cheekbones protruded in the absence of any fat, giving him a gaunt appearance. A relative could be seen running his finger along each bone on the boy\u2019s ribcage, which is clearly visible due to malnutrition.
\nJournalist Wisam Shabat, who posted the video on his Instagram account, said Abu Khater arrived at the hospital in a very critical condition, suffering from severe complications due to lack of food and medical care, before he passed away.
\nThe 17-year-old is among at least seven Palestinians who have died of malnutrition in the past 24 hours across Gaza, the director of al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera.
\nAt least 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of starvation and malnutrition across the territory since Israel\u2019s war began in October 2023, according to the latest Gaza Health Ministry figures.
\nUN and other humanitarian officials say Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries, though partially lifted in recent days, have left Palestinians starving and struggling to find enough food to feed their families.
\nAmid growing international condemnation of the crisis, Israel has said it is increasing aid deliveries to Palestinians, including via airdrops.
\nBut humanitarian groups say airdrops are dangerous and inefficient, and they have called on Israel to open up all the crossings into Gaza to allow assistance to flow freely to Palestinians in need.
\nPhilippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said on Saturday that \u201cthe manmade famine in Gaza has been largely shaped by the deliberate attempts to replace\u201d UN aid systems with a contentious, US and Israeli-backed group called the GHF.
\nIsraeli forces have routinely fired on Palestinians trying to get food at GHF-run distribution sites in Gaza, and the UN reported this week that more than 1,300 aid seekers have been killed since the group began operating in May.
\nLazzarini also accused Israel of actively preventing the UN and other humanitarian groups from delivering lifesaving aid to Palestinians, in what he described as \u201ca deliberate measure to collectively pressure and punish Palestinians for living in Gaza\u201d.
\n\u201cNo time to waste anymore, a political decision must be made to unconditionally open the crossings\u201d, the UNRWA chief said in a post on X.
\nChildren \u2018dying slowly\u2019
\nMeanwhile, thousands of Palestinian families continue to search for food and other desperately needed supplies across Gaza.
\nReporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, Al Jazeera\u2019s Hind Khoudary said dozens of people, including infants, are \u201cdying slowly due to forced starvation by Israel\u201d.
\n\u201cOne of them is Misk al-Madhoun, a malnourished five-year-old whose parents have no way of feeding her. They say they are seeing her dying slowly every single day,\u201d said Khoudary, adding that parents are doing all they possibly can for their children.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve met with mothers who are giving their babies water instead of milk because they do not have any other option,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re also still seeing Palestinian parents walking very long distances in the heat daily to look for any hot meal kitchen or distribution point. Even if they go to the GHF sites, they risk being killed, wounded or coming home empty-handed.\u201d
\nOn Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring system, warned that the \u201cworst-case scenario of famine\u201d was unfolding in Gaza.
\n\u201cLatest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,\u201d it said in a report.
\n\u201cAmid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Atef Abu Khater\u2019s weight dropped to just 25kg (55lbs) before he died of malnutrition, his family says Gaza City A Palestinian teenager with no previous health conditions has starved to death in Gaza after being hospitalised, medical officials and relatives say, as people in the besieged enclave desperately struggle to find food amid Israel\u2019s continued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-494668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n