"They are dying before our eyes"; British doctor exposes deliberate starvation in Gaza

Nick Maynard, a volunteer British surgeon working in a hospital in Gaza, who says he has traveled to the Gaza Strip three times since December 2023, writes in a piece about the dire conditions of people who, in addition to relentless Israeli airstrikes, are under a tight blockade:

“I am writing this from Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, where I have just finished operating on another teenager suffering from severe malnutrition. A seven-month-old baby is in our pediatric ICU, so tiny and malnourished that at first, I mistook her for a newborn. The phrase ‘skin and bone’ doesn’t do justice to her horrific physical condition. She is literally wasting away before our eyes, and despite all our efforts, we cannot save her. We are now witnessing deliberate starvation in Gaza.”

He continues: “I have experienced mass casualty events and warned about malnutrition in Gaza back in January 2024, but nothing prepared me for the sheer horror I am witnessing now: hunger being weaponized against an entire population.”

In his piece for The Guardian, Maynard writes:

“The malnutrition crisis has become catastrophic since my last visit. Every day, I witness the deterioration and death of patients—not due to injuries, but due to extreme malnutrition. The reconstructive surgeries we perform fall apart, patients develop horrific infections, and then die. This happens repeatedly, and watching it is heartbreaking. Four infants have died in recent weeks at this hospital—not from bombs or bullets, but from starvation.”

According to the British doctor, families and staff are doing everything they can to bring in food, but there is simply not enough available in Gaza. For babies, infant formula is practically nonexistent. Children are being given 10% dextrose (sugar water), which has no nutritional value, and many mothers are so severely malnourished they cannot breastfeed. When a foreign colleague tried to bring baby formula into Gaza, Israeli authorities confiscated it.

The article continues: “Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach is twofold: prevent food from entering Gaza, while desperate civilians have no choice but to go to military-run distribution points to receive limited supplies. As of May, there were over 400 aid distribution points in Gaza where people could access food with relative safety. Now, there are only four such military centers in the south, where even there, starving families are under constant threat of attack.”

Maynard adds: “Every day I hear about dozens of wounded arriving at Gaza’s emergency rooms, many with gunshot injuries sustained at these food distribution points. I have operated on boys aged 12 to 15 whose relatives said they were shot while trying to bring food home to their families. Last week, a 12-year-old child died on the operating table after being shot in the abdomen in an area that can only be described as a death trap for those seeking basic survival.”

His colleagues in the emergency department also report a disturbing pattern: injuries on specific body parts—heads, legs, genitals—suggesting intentional targeting of those areas.

He goes on to describe operating on two Palestinian women in recent days:

“According to those who brought them in, they were both shot by drones while sheltering in their tents near one of these food distribution sites. One was breastfeeding her child during the attack; the other was pregnant. Thankfully, both have survived their injuries so far. These women weren’t even seeking aid—they were simply taking refuge in supposedly safe areas, which are nonetheless subject to indiscriminate Israeli army fire.”

According to the British surgeon, not only are patients malnourished, but so are the healthcare workers themselves:

“When I first arrived, I barely recognized some of the colleagues I worked with last year—some had lost up to 30 kilograms. At lunchtime, doctors and nurses go to distribution centers, fully aware they risk death, but they have no choice if they want to feed their families.”

He writes: “Nasser Hospital is the last major functioning hospital in southern Gaza, but we are operating at breaking point—staggered by previous attacks, grappling with mass casualties, and facing shortages of everything. Netanyahu’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system has funneled all patients in critical condition to this one facility, while healthcare workers and patients are directly targeted. Just this week, one of our beloved nurses was killed in her tent—along with her three young children.”

He also accuses the UK government of ongoing complicity in the crimes of the Israeli regime in Gaza, writing:

“This is unacceptable, and I do not want to spend another day operating on children who have been shot and starved by an army supported by our own government. History will judge not only those who committed these crimes—but also those who stood by and watched.”