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Let humanity prevail

Let humanity prevail

Gulf Today04-06-2025
The plight of the people of Gaza is really heartrending. They are unable to access water, food and medicines. The area of land which they occupy has been shrinking in the current battle. Their children are missing school for years now. Generations of children are losing the opportunity to build better lives.
Hamas should release the remaining Israeli hostages as a sign of good faith. Perhaps, it will create an atmosphere of mutual trust and kindle a peaceful settlement. Friendly countries of both the warring parties should lead efforts to restore normalcy in Gaza. The people of Gaza also have the right to lead peaceful family lives.
Rajendra Aneja,
Mumbai, India
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Over 100,000 children in Gaza at risk of death due to Israeli blockade
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Over 100,000 children in Gaza at risk of death due to Israeli blockade

A mother wept as she cradled the shrouded body of her five-month-old baby, weighing barely 2kg, at a hospital in Gaza on Saturday. Zainab Abu Haleeb, who died from malnutrition, is one of at least five Palestinians to have succumbed to starvation in the past 24 hours, as Israel's siege continues to strangle the Gaza Strip. The distraught mother told Middle East Eye that she had been pleading for months to be evacuated from Gaza and had already prepared the necessary documents. 'No one is listening to our pleas,' she said. 'The girl suffered a lot during her sickness.' She said that malnutrition, the lack of infant formula and the closure of crossings into Gaza had all worked against her daughter's survival and the well-being of Gaza's population as a whole. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'I'm now waiting for her body to be released from the morgue,' she said. 'I've been in the hospital for three months, and this is what I get in return. In return, my daughter is dead.' Zainab was born healthy, with no illness or deformity; her only need was a steady supply of infant formula. 'If the crossings were open, the girl would have been out by now,' her mother said, tears welling in her eyes. 'I wouldn't be standing in front of the morgue, waiting for my daughter.' 'Imminent death of children' The infant's family struggled to access proper care and nutrition amid the ongoing Israeli blockade, which has stopped the entry of essential food supplies, nutritional supplements and medical aid. The widespread famine has also left many mothers, including Zainab's, malnourished and unable to breastfeed their children. 'Catastrophic': Infants in Gaza battle to stay alive amid formula shortage Read More » 'I got pregnant with her during the starvation, I gave birth to her during the starvation, I don't think I've eaten an egg in nine months. What more can I say?' the mother shared. For weeks, doctors and health specialists in the besieged enclave have warned of a "catastrophic" situation in the Gaza Strip if formula and other vital supplies are not urgently delivered to Gaza. On Saturday, Gaza's government media office issued a stark warning: over 100,000 children under the age of two, including 40,000 infants, are facing "imminent death within days" if infant formula is not immediately delivered. "We are facing a deliberate and foreseeable mass killing being perpetrated slowly against infants whose mothers have been feeding them water instead of infant formula for days, a direct consequence of the starvation and extermination policies enforced by the Israeli occupation,' the statement added. More than 100 humanitarian organisations warned on Wednesday that "mass famine" has been spreading across the Gaza Strip since Israel blocked humanitarian aid from entering in early March and began providing inadequate aid through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Fund at the end of May. The Israeli and US-backed initiative has allowed an insufficient amount of relief supplies, while carrying out attacks against civilians seeking aid at the GHF sites. At least 127 Palestinians, including more than 85 children, have died of starvation since Israel's blockade resumed in March, according to the Palestinian health ministry. More than 1,121 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid at distribution sites operated by the GHF, manned by Israeli soldiers and US security contractors. 'No one answered our calls' The father of Abed al-Salaam Abu Mohsen faced a similar fate over the past day, as he mourned his child who died of starvation. He was seen being comforted by his toddler daughter, as he wept over his son's remains. Abed al-Salaam had been admitted to the hospital 70 days earlier. Doctors diagnosed him with an enlarged liver - a condition that could have been treated if he had been transferred out of Gaza for medical care. 'We have been pleading with everyone for 70 days to leave Gaza,' his father sobbed. 'We contacted the World Health Organization, but there was no answer. This is how our children die.' Abd al-Salaam Abu Mohsen's father is seen mourning his son while his daughter comforts him on 26 July 2025 (MEE/Ahmed Aziz) Doctors informed the family that they lacked the resources and capacity to treat Abed al-Salaam's condition. 'Truly, we felt the doctors had nothing they could do,' his father said. 'Our only hope was to leave Gaza for treatment, but we couldn't.' The blockade made it impossible for the family to leave despite having prepared all the documents for medical transfer. The father went on to issue a heartfelt plea: 'Our message to the world is to see the entire Palestinian population, not just the children. Today, everyone in Gaza is suffering. We, the people of Gaza, are all enduring starvation and death. 'What is happening to us is starvation, a shortage of medicine, and a lack of treatment options.' Zainab's mother voiced similar frustration and despair over the international silence regarding her daughter's deteriorating condition. 'I'm sure all the media saw her, the whole world saw her, but no one answered our calls,' she said. 'My message to the world, which didn't hear us in the beginning and won't hear us now: you didn't listen when she was alive, so why would you listen now that she's gone? There's no use for you, especially the Arab nations. 'I swear to God, westerners called and offered support. But you Arabs, you were useless.'

Gaza famine: To be killed by an air strike is easier than watching your children starve
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Gaza famine: To be killed by an air strike is easier than watching your children starve

Each morning that dawns over the Gaza Strip brings nothing but more hunger, more collapse and a deepening sense of despair. For more than three months, over two million people have endured an unprecedented catastrophe - a true famine in every sense of the word - amid a merciless war, an unrelenting siege and an unforgivable international silence. Famine in Gaza has become a daily reality. It is no longer merely a sensation of deprivation; it manifests in the sight of people collapsing in the streets from sheer exhaustion. Children, women, the elderly - no one is spared. We have witnessed, with our own eyes, bodies slumping on the pavement and lives lost outside the ruins of bakeries or at aid distribution points that never deliver. The price of a kilogram of flour has surpassed $30, while a kilogram of sugar now costs over $130. Most foods are either entirely unavailable or so scarce as to seem imaginary. The tragedy is not just in the prices, but in the absence of essential goods. People are not simply refusing to buy; there is nothing left to buy. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters There is no oil, no rice, no bread - not even a can of tuna. What appears occasionally might be a handful of red peppers or a bottle of dish detergent - a grim irony in the face of starvation. Famine in Gaza manifests in the sight of people collapsing in the streets from sheer exhaustion Areas deemed "safe", such as northern Rafah or the Qataneh district, have turned into death zones. Starving civilians who head to these locations in search of aid are being targeted. According to the United Nations, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since late May while they were attempting to access food aid. Dozens continue to be killed each day. As former UN aid chief Martin Griffiths warned, this deliberate famine represents "the worst crime of the 21st century". Perhaps the most heart-wrenching image of all was that of the infant Yahya al-Najjar, just a few months old, who died of severe malnutrition. His tiny body was reduced to bones draped in translucent skin - a devastating sight, unfolding in full view of the world, in the heart of Palestine. Unbearable hunger We no longer speak of hunger in the abstract. Hunger is killing us in Gaza, but it is world leaders who should be dying of shame Read More » Children now cry out daily: "We want bread!" "We want to eat!" But no one feeds them. My young cousins, only five years old, wake at dawn begging their father to bring them a loaf of bread, but he cannot afford one. A single loaf has become a luxury. Some fathers have begun to flee their tents, unable to bear the look of disappointment in their children's eyes. I saw a mother praying for her children to die, simply because she could no longer feed them. Some mothers sit at the entrances of their tents, tears falling, whispering broken prayers: "Oh God, please take them... relieve them of this suffering." In the streets, people can no longer walk. They drag their bodies. So extreme is the weakness that their legs can no longer support them. Faces are hollow, stripped of life. The children are skeletal. The men, pale and gaunt, haul their bones in heavy silence. I saw with my own eyes an elderly man, over 70 years old, ask a young man who was eating a piece of bread to share it with him. Has hunger brought us to the point where our elders must beg for a bite? Those of us who are married can no longer provide food for our wives. For months now, I have stopped entertaining the thought of having a child, not out of choice, but because this genocide has made it impossible to imagine a future for them. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of Israel's war on Gaza Each morning, my wife asks: "What do we have to eat?" And I answer, swallowing the shame of being unable to protect the person I love: "I'm fasting today." We fast out of despair, not piety. We drink water - when there is any - and deceive ourselves with hope, if only to survive the day. Invented meals Our daily meals are invented out of nothing: lentils mixed with pasta, rice cooked over a wood fire or soup made from nothing but boiled water. We eat, then feel hungry again an hour later. We sleep to escape the hunger, but it wakes up with us. During the day, we grow dizzy. We fall silent. We comfort one another with words. We nap, hoping the pain might ease. I have lost 14kg, and I am still fighting. But what of those with no job? No money? No one to lean on? In the street, under the blazing July sun, a child stares longingly at a vendor selling iced water. A cup costs half a dollar, but no one can afford it. There is no electricity, no fan, no shade - just thirst thick in the air. Someone walks by eating a sandwich, and five or 10 children, perhaps even elderly men, gather around, asking for a bite. It is not greed that drives them, but sheer desperation - because they are human, and hunger has taken everything else. The markets, where they still exist, are empty. Nasser Hospital, the last remaining lifeline in southern Gaza, has become a gathering point for those struggling to survive. There is no medicine or food - nothing but the screams of mothers, the tears of patients and those on the brink of starvation or death. Silent massacre Death no longer frightens anyone in Gaza. For many, it has become a dream. To be killed by shrapnel or an air strike is easier than dying while watching your children writhe in agony from hunger or your wife unable even to stand. Death is no longer the end; it is a release. The world sees and hears, but does nothing, as if our lives are not worthy of living What is happening in Gaza today is not a natural disaster. It is a deliberate famine - a massacre carried out in silence, as people waste away unseen. The population is being starved - slowly, cruelly, by design. At the same time, infrastructure is being destroyed. Hospitals are being bombed. Civilians are being killed as they crowd around aid lorries filled with flour, and the world watches from behind its screens, unmoved by any sense of humanity. This is Gaza now: a city untouched by light, inhabited by people waiting for the end. They do not ask for miracles, just some bread, some medicine and some dignity. The world sees and hears, but does nothing, as if our lives are not worthy of living. We do not write to weep, but to report the truth as it is: Gaza is choking from hunger, drowning in darkness and being annihilated in full view of the world. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

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