Amira sits at her son's bedside in a paediatrics unit in Deir el Balah, central Gaza amid a shortage in medical supplies and baby milk. Like Amira, Noha, mother of Saif, bemoans the crisis afflicting Gaza's children "all night long, he suffers," she says. Israel's closure of crossing points is the primary cause of "illnesses... malnutrition, and malabsorption," says a pediatrician in the hospital. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES