‘Man-made mass starvation’: Gaza’s hunger crisis deepens

The images are difficult to see and even harder to comprehend, but global aid agencies are urging us not to look away.

One-and-a-half-year-old Muhammad Ayyoub al-Matouq is being cradled by his mother, inside a tent in Gaza City, with a black bin bag as a nappy.

His emaciated body weighs the same as a three-month-old baby.

The World Health Organisation says as Israeli bombs keep dropping and bullets keep being fired, there’s now another killer in Gaza: starvation.

It counts 21 children under the age of 5 who have died from malnutrition.

And Gaza’s health ministry says at least 10 lives have been claimed in the past 24 hours.

Former Foreign Minister and NSW Premier Bob Carr says now is the time for Australia to toughen its stance.

“I don’t want this to be on our consciences 20-50 years from now, with people thinking, as this material is revisited- why didn’t I speak up, why didn’t my parents speak out, why didn’t Australia’s leaders speak out,” Carr told 10 News+.

Aid agencies say close to 100,000 women and children are now experiencing severe acute malnutrition.

Inside the Malnutrition Department of the Patient’s Friends Hospital, babies are monitored, but there’s little the staff can do to help them.