A British NHS nurse volunteering in Gaza has delivered a harrowing first-hand account of a deepening malnutrition crisis, warning that children are now dying of starvation as aid fails to reach those in desperate need.
Mandy Blackman, from London, has been working with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the besieged territory. She described scenes of utter desperation, with hospitals completely overwhelmed by severely malnourished infants and a healthcare system on the brink of total collapse.
A Healthcare System in Collapse
"The situation is beyond dire," Blackman reported. "We are seeing children who are simply skin and bone. They are too weak to cry, too exhausted to move. They are dying from preventable causes—from hunger and from the diseases that take hold when their bodies have no strength left to fight."
She detailed how medical staff are forced to make impossible choices every day, prioritising who receives the limited supplies of therapeutic food and clean water. The lack of basic sanitation and clean drinking water has accelerated the spread of disease, compounding the famine-like conditions.
'A Man-Made Catastrophe'
Blackman emphasised that this is a man-made catastrophe, a direct result of the ongoing conflict and the severe restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. She described the heartbreak of parents begging for help for their children, knowing that the supplies needed to save them are sitting just miles away, blocked from delivery.
"We have the knowledge and the means to stop this, but the aid is not getting through consistently or at the scale required," she stated. "The world must not look away. We are witnessing a famine unfold in real time."
Her powerful testimony adds to the growing international calls for an immediate ceasefire and for all parties to facilitate the safe and rapid delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to prevent further loss of innocent life.
