Israel Confiscated Baby Formula From Doctors On Arrival in Gaza

[Celerity]

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Israel limits entry of baby formula in Gaza as infants die of hunger

While waiting to enter Gaza on a medical aid mission, an American doctor watched Israeli security forces confiscate the cans of powdered baby formula packed in his luggage. The vital product is desperately lacking in the Palestinian enclave, where about 50 children have died of hunger since March.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/07/01/israel-limits-entry-of-baby-formula-in-gaza-as-infants-die-of-hunger_6742899_4.html

https://archive.ph/DoP78



https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/07/01/israel-limits-entry-of-baby-formula-in-gaza-as-infants-die-of-hunger_6742899_4.html

By Laure Stephan (Beirut, Lebanon correspondent)

Published on July 1, 2025, at 11:30 am (Paris)

At the end of June, an American doctor was preparing to travel to Gaza for a medical mission. His suitcases were filled with cans of baby formula, gauze, bandages and sanitary pads. He believed he was doing the right thing: The Palestinian population of the enclave, bombarded and starved by the Israeli army, lacks everything. While in Amman, a mandatory gathering point for foreign medical missions heading to Gaza, the coordinator of the convoy, Palestinian-German ophthalmic surgeon Diana Nazzal urged him to lighten his load. "If you only have medical supplies and no personal belongings, you risk being turned away, or even jeopardizing the whole mission," she explained.

The American doctor followed her instructions, reducing the baby formula in his luggage to three cans. Once at the Allenby Bridge crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, however, his personal belongings were searched by Israeli security guards manning the terminal on the Palestinian side.

"The baby formula was confiscated," said Nazzal. "What other explanation is there, if it's not that hunger is being used as a weapon of war in the ongoing genocide in Gaza?" Local health workers said baby formula is desperately lacking in the enclave, especially specialized formula for premature babies or lactose-free formula for babies with intolerances. Many mothers, suffering from malnutrition, are unable to breastfeed.

'Severe malnutrition'

COGAT, the branch of the Israeli army that coordinates the entry of humanitarian aid, told the Associated Press that more than 1,000 metric tons of baby food, including infant formula, have been delivered to Gaza since May 19, when Israeli authorities very slightly eased the complete humanitarian blockade imposed on the coastal territory for two and a half months.

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