In the wards of Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, two-year-old Mayar Al-Arja stares into the distance.
Her mother watches on, fearful the war is slowly killing her daughter, with no salvation in sight.
"She doesn't walk, play, smile, or speak; she does nothing at all," Asmaa Faif Al-Arja told the ABC.
"This is the third time I've had to bring her to the hospital — each time, I leave hoping she'll get better, only to return again.
"She continues to lose weight and is unable to gain any back."
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Mayar is only about half the weight a girl her age should be, tipping the scales at just over 6 kilograms.
"She has a severe protein deficiency, her hair is falling out, her skin is peeling, and she suffers from constant diarrhoea," Asmaa said.
"There's no access to the protein-rich food she so desperately needs.
"She doesn't need complex treatment; she just needs to eat — all she requires is access to special nutritious food, that's all."
'The local market is now a black market'
But such items are in desperately short supply in Gaza, with Israeli restrictions on the number of aid deliveries entering Gaza.
About 70 trucks a day have crossed into the war-ravaged strip since Monday.
The Israeli agency which coordinates services in Gaza, COGAT, said 240 tonnes of baby food had arrived earlier this week, to be distributed by the United Nation's children's agency UNICEF.
But doctors have warned months of prolonged shortages mean those deliveries are yet to make much of an impact, and the situation has been left to develop into a full blown crisis.
"The cases of malnutrition, [children] who have died due to malnutrition, they are increasing day by day," Ahmad Al-Farra from Nasser Hospital's paediatrics and maternity department told the ABC.
"The last statistic is talking about 62 cases expired or died due to malnutrition, and the number of malnourishing cases increasing month by month nearly 150 per cent."
Dr Al-Farra said expertise in Gaza could only go so far to help the children.
"Hassan Barbakh is two years old, lovely boy, he was in good general condition," he said.
"He got in severe malnutrition — his weight before, his weight in the hospital was 6 kilograms, nearly half of the expected weight usual for his age.
"Hassan was suffering, he was planned to be referred outside Gaza to be diagnosed and treated."
But Dr Al-Farra said he did not survive.
With milk and formula deliveries not coming, Dr Al-Farra revealed hospital staff and volunteers were trying to buy supplies in local markets.
"The local market now is black market," he said.
"The price of milk is nearly 10, multiplied by 10 times."
Concern aid could be being hijacked
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz once again accused Hamas of hijacking aid convoys entering Gaza, and stealing and stockpiling supplies.
It appeared to be fuelled by videos circulating on social media, including one posted by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, showing armed gunmen riding on aid trucks.
Vision distributed by news agencies on the ground in Gaza showed scenes of Palestinians jumping on board the trucks as they travelled through the strip.
"Following information received today that Hamas is once again taking control of the humanitarian aid entering the northern Gaza Strip and stealing it from civilians, the Prime Minister and Defense Minister instructed the IDF to present within 48 hours an action plan to prevent Hamas from taking control of the aid," Mr Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Hamas denied the allegations, labelling them as "fabricated".
"We clarify to the public that it was Palestinian families and clans who secured the aid convoys in northern Gaza — without any involvement from the Palestinian government or factions — as a purely popular and moral initiative to provide crumbs of food to hundreds of thousands of starving civilians," Gaza's government media office said in a statement.
"These cheap lies expose the occupation's ongoing efforts to 'engineer chaos' and spread false narratives as a cover for continuing to block aid and close crossings, amounting to a full-fledged crime against more than 2.4 million starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
Israeli officials insisted aid deliveries into Gaza had not been suspended, and that the Netanyahu government was backing the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute aid.
"Hamas are on its last legs, we know that they're on its last legs, they are desperate to get hold of this aid so they can extort their people, enrich themselves and pay for more terrorist attacks on this country, and we will not let them do that," government spokesperson David Mencer said in response to questions from the ABC.
"Through the facilitating the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), we are getting aid — millions upon millions upon millions of meals are being handed directly to Palestinian families … getting it out of the hands of Hamas.
"I will make clear as well that no, aid delivery has not been suspended and they are still ongoing."
Palestinian health authorities said more than 800 people were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza while the country was fighting its war with Iran, and dozens were shot as they tried to enter aid distribution sites across the strip.
Humanitarian agencies have been highly critical of the GHF model, accusing Israel and the United States of undermining established and effective methods of getting food to desperate people and weaponising aid at a time of war.
