As Israel's brutal war grinds on for over five months, Gazan children have become its worst victims with over 13,000 killed in bombing and ground operations.

Now growing cases of child malnutrition across the Palestinian enclave bear witness to Israel weaponizing hunger.

At least 16 young children have died as of Monday due to malnutrition in Gaza, according to the Anadolu Agency (AA).

Statistics show that towns and cities in the northern part of the Gaza Strip including Gaza City, Beit Lahia, Jabalia and Beit Hanoun rank first in terms of child deaths due to malnutrition and dehydration.

Last week, the Health Ministry announced the deaths of two infants as a result of malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern part of the enclave.

The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital Hussam Abu Safiya said they are witnessing an uptick in the number of children suffering from malnutrition-related complications.

Emaciated faces

Two Palestinian toddlers with sunken eyes and emaciated faces, one in a yellow cardigan and the other in a stripy top, were lying side by side on a bed in a Gaza clinic, their thin, bony legs protruding from diapers that looked too big for them.

This was the scene Monday at Al-Awda health center in Rafah, southern Gaza, where nurse Diaa al-Shaer said children suffering from malnutrition and a range of diseases were arriving in unprecedented numbers.

"We will face a large number of patients who suffer from this, which is malnutrition," she said.

The toddler in the yellow cardigan, Ahmed Qannan, weighed 6 kilograms, half of his pre-war body weight, according to his aunt, Israa Kalakh, who was by his side.

"His situation worsens each day. God protect us from what is coming," she told Reuters.

Nearly five months into Israel's air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip and resulting mass displacement, acute shortages of food have led to what the United Nations is describing as a nutrition crisis, part of a wider humanitarian catastrophe.

Gaza's Health Ministry said earlier Sunday that 15 children had died of malnutrition or dehydration at Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, the part of the enclave where the lack of food is most extreme.

"The unofficial numbers can unfortunately be expected to be higher," said World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier.

The worsening hunger crisis has intensified criticism of Israel on the world stage, including from U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, whose country is Israel's staunchest ally. She said on Sunday that people in Gaza were starving, calling on Israel to do more to significantly increase the flow of aid.

Reuters obtained video filmed Saturday at Kamal Adwan, showing a woman, Anwar Abdulnabi, weeping over the body of her daughter Mila, a toddler, who had just died in her bed.

"My daughter, my beautiful daughter, my gentle daughter has passed away," cried Abdulnabi. She later said through her tears that Mila had been suffering from calcium and potassium deficiencies, but did not specify what caused the child's death.

Dr. Ahmad Salem, who works in the hospital's intensive care unit, said one of the factors in the high number of child deaths there was that new mothers were themselves malnourished.

"The mothers cannot breastfeed their children. We do not have formula milk. This has led to the deaths of children here in the intensive care unit. Also in the nursery, there are numerous deaths," he said.

'Helplessness and despair'

Deliveries of food aid to the whole of Gaza are falling far short of what is needed, and the problem is worse in the north because the only crossings where Israel allows trucks to pass are in the south. Some aid trucks have been seized by desperate crowds before they reach the north.

"The sense of helplessness and despair among parents and doctors in realizing that lifesaving aid, just a few kilometers away, is being kept out of reach, must be unbearable," said Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

In its latest situation report, dated March 1, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said an average of about 97 trucks a day had been entering Gaza in February, down from about 150 in January and well short of the 500-a-day target.

U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups have blamed the shortfall on Israel's actions, including the closure of land crossings into northern Gaza, ongoing military operations and a complex system of Israeli checks of items bound for Gaza.

Israel says it does not restrict humanitarian or medical aid and has blamed the lack of deliveries on the capacity of aid agencies.

At Al-Awda health center in Rafah, a 12-year-old boy named Yazan al-Kafarna died Monday. Filmed for Reuters on Saturday, he was pale and emaciated, with skeletal limbs.

Dr. Jabir al-Shaar, head of the pediatric department at Abu Yousef al-Najar hospital in Rafah, where the boy was treated until he was transferred to Al-Awda, said Yazan had cerebral palsy and had been dependent upon a special diet such as blended fruit and milk, items now unavailable in Gaza.

The doctor attributed the boy's death to malnutrition. The case was already becoming a cause celebre on Monday, being cited at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly by Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour.

His mother, Um Yazan al-Kafarna, spent the last days of his life by his side.

"He used to eat, drink, move, play, laugh. I used to play with him," she said.

'Appalling'

World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday called the situation in Gaza "appalling."

"Severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote on X, about the "grim findings" during the WHO's visits to Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza.

"The situation at Al-Awda Hospital is particularly appalling, as one of the buildings is destroyed. Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only paediatrics hospital in the north of Gaza, and is overwhelmed with patients," he added.

Ghebreyesus said that the lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children, adding that the lack of electricity also poses a "serious threat" to patient care, especially in critical areas like the intensive care unit and the neonatal unit.

"We appeal to Israel to ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered safely, and regularly. Civilians, especially children, and health staff need scaled-up help immediately."

"But the key medicine all these patients need is peace. Ceasefire," he added.