Siwar Ashour was born in war and hunger and knew nothing. Now, she faces real danger of death without ever knowing peace or satisfaction.

The six-month-old Palestinian girl’s painfully thin body symbolizes Gaza’s intentional hunger when she was born on the BBC this week, and when she was born on November 20 last year, she was only 2.5 kg.

From birth, Siwar had problems with the esophagus, which made her hard to drink breast milk and made her rely on specialized recipes, which was undersupply.

Her parents were bombed at Al-nuseirat’s home halfway through the coast of the Gaza Strip, a war that began in October 2023 when Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel, causing the Israeli attacks to cause more than 52,000 people in Gaza to date. They lived in tents for a while, but it was almost impossible to buy food or water in the camp and were also caught in Israeli fires.

They tried to return to al-Nuseirat to stay at Siwar's grandparents' home, but this was blown up too. All that remains of the building is a single room, which they share with 11 other people. That's where Sival was born.

“I’ve been exhausted.” Without food or proper nutrition, she wasn’t like other babies when I gave birth to her. ”

"When she was born, she was beautiful despite her weaker characteristics," she said. "But now she is unnaturally losing weight. Babies of her age should weigh 6 kg or more, not just 2 to 4 kg."

Najwa discovered last month that she was pregnant with a second child but lived in horror before her brother or sister was born. She has moved to Khan Younis to be with her mother, but has been hospitalized with her weak daughter for most of the past few months.

Her husband Saleh was blind and had to stay in al-Nuseirat. The ruthless bombing forced the family to move several times like almost all of Gaza's families and tore it apart.

"Although Sivar's father was blind, he used to play with her a lot. He only visited us once in the hospital because he couldn't move without anyone being with him," Najiva said. "He was more worried about her than I - he was deeply attached to her."

The family has no source of income and therefore relies on charitable kitchens to provide food and some humanitarian assistance, but this is also urgently insufficient as Israel's total blockade on Gaza is close to the 70-day mark. "The artificial and politically motivated hunger in Gaza is an absolutely cruel expression," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN relief agency, said this week.

Najwa and her mother were left with only a bag of flour and some canned food.

"Once it's used up, we won't be able to buy anything due to the high price," Najiva said. More importantly, the supply of special milk formulas that Siwar needs is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

"I also suffer from malnutrition. Still, I tried to breastfeed Sivar, but she refused and continued to cry, completely rejecting me," Najiva said. "That's why I had to rely more on formula milk. When I used to breastfeed her, a canned formula would last for a month. Now, it's running out in less than a week."

Najwa and her daughter spent most of their time in the hospital of Deir Al-Balah, where a milk formula seemed to work, making Sivar weigh up to 4 kg.

“I noticed Siwar started smiling and playing, which made me happy and hoped her health would improve.”

But when they were discharged from the hospital, that fragile moment of hope collapsed and Sivar began to lose weight again. Currently, she is referred to Khan Yunis' Nasser Hospital where her mother and daughter stay.

"The doctors are doing everything they can to take care of her, but she doesn't tolerate the formulas they have prepared for her," Najiva said. "The hospital is not in good condition. There are six patients in each room. Looking everywhere, there is pain. There is a child who is worse than Sivar."

"My daughter makes me insomnia every day in this state," she said. "I've been anxious and thinking all the time. Sometimes I can't help seeing her like this, and I start crying. I'm afraid of losing her. The world can't open the cross to allow milk, food and medicine. All I want is to let my daughter Siwar live like the rest of the world."

Ahmed Al-Farah, director of the Children and Maternity Building at the Nasser Medical Complex, said five to 10 new cases of malnutrition were recorded there every day.

"We're seeing serious cases. Malnutrition is present in children in a fearful and extremely obvious way," Farah said. "We have nothing to offer. They require protein, but there is no protein. We try to provide a small amount of milk, maybe milk, but we can't offer more."

"Most importantly, severe overcrowding in hospitals can lead to an increase in the spread of childhood diseases," he added.

The Nasser complex has only enough fuel to keep the generator for another 48 hours. They have had to turn off power from the executive floor to keep it going longer, but soon the power supply must be cut into overcrowded patient wards.

"We are helpless in the face of their needs - we can't provide foods, supplements, medications or vitamins that suit their condition," the doctor said. "I studied malnutrition in medical school textbooks. I used to think that this study would be theoretical, something we've never seen in real life. But now, the descriptions of these textbooks have come to life in our eyes in Gaza," Farah said.

“I call on the world to see us as human beings – we created just like everyone else.”