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.

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