Hungry children are dying in Gaza as Israel's chokehold on aid drives territory toward starvation

WARNING: This story contains images of severely malnutritioned children.

The dire situation at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza may be a warning sign for what's to come in the rest of the besieged Palestinian territory.

Fifteen children have died at the facility in recent days from hunger and malnutrition as Gaza slowly runs out of food for its 2.3 million people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

"Mothers are not able to nurse their babies or give them immunities," said Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot, who's been tending to the most serious cases.

"If the mother herself suffers from malnutrition, how can she feed her baby?"

Video obtained by CBC News showed rows of tiny newborns in hospital incubators, with little formula or nutrition, struggling to make it through their first days of life. Some did not.

One grieving mother, Anwar Abdulnabi, wailed as she clutched the body of her daughter, Mila, who she said died from a calcium and potassium deficiency.

Al-Kahlot said severe dehydration has compromised the immune systems of many children, making them especially vulnerable to infection and disease. The only solution, he said, is to give them more food and water, of which there is very little.

But aid groups say Israel, which is at war with Hamas, is at worst deliberately withholding food aid for Gaza, or at the very least doing too little to expedite its movement into the territory.

Among Gaza's hunger victims this week was Yazan al-Kafarna, a nine-year-old boy born with cerebral palsy.

The shocking video and images of his almost skeletal limbs and sunken eyes were picked up by news agencies and shown around the world.

His father, Ashraf, told CBC News that his son slowly wasted away after the fresh fruit and other food he needed for his diet disappeared from Gaza, and there weren't any substitutes available.

"Before the war, we could get the food he needed. Now all the food that I used to get him before the war is not available."

Yazan died in a hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Monday morning.