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Rabat — Gaza is starving. If you are following any news source or Palestinian creator on social media, it does not take more than 20 seconds on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook to see a picture of a starving child on your feed.
This footage has influxed so much to the point that a hashtag is now circulating #GazaIsStarving. This hashtag was reported over the weekend to have been used in over 5,000 posts on Instagram at this point. But, despite this larger awareness campaign, this is not merely a trend. On the contrary, these videos and photos are simply Gazans, reporting quite frankly for the world to see, that they are starving to death in a man-made famine in which Israel is solely responsible.
These horrifying images of emaciated bodies are backed by numbers, reported daily. Gaza’s health ministry recently reported that 15 people have died, including 4 children, due to malnutrition in the last 24 hours alone. This added to the rising, but likely under-reported, death toll of 101 Gazans who died from malnutrition – 80 of them being children – since the genocide began on October 7.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) has reported an even more alarming number: 1 million — that is how many Gazan children are going hungry.
Bullets for bread
What’s more? Gazans everyday are having to choose between the harsh reality of continuing to wither away from malnutrition or risking their lives to get food.
It is no conspiracy theory or false reporting that the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “aid” points are merely danger zones for aid seekers.
A Haaretz report released at the end of last month quoted IOF soldiers admitting that they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution centers, despite the lack of any threat being present.
One unnamed soldier told the Israeli newspaper that “between one five people” were killed everyday at these stations, which they described as being “killing fields.” In a predictable turn of events, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected these claims, calling them “blood libels,” but the on-site reports and social media footage by Palestinians themselves tell a different story.
UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told AFP today that: “As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations’ aid convoys.”
Hunger does not differentiate
Even more insidious about Israel’s starvation campaign is that weaponizing food affects everyone, even those there to provide help to those in most need.
What started as reports of dying Gazan children and the vulnerable is now shifting into reports of malnourished aid workers, UN personnel, reporters, medics, and other volunteers working around the clock desperately to provide support for Palestinians on the ground.
UNWRA reported that they are receiving “desperate messages reporting famine” from their staff in Gaza, while Anera aid organization posted a quote from one of their staff members saying, “People are falling on the ground due to lack of food. We are really hungry and can’t stand on our feet.”
An often forgotten part of the suffering amongst the sheer mass of human toll suffering are the animals that are dying from hunger as well. Alongside photos of their own emaciated bodies, Palestinians are sharing photos of their pets as well, skin-and-bone and struggling to get by.
‘Gaza is dying, and we are dying with it’
Meanwhile, some journalists are risking their lives even further to call out the inhumanity, reportedly going on a hunger strike until Gazan children can eat. Palestinian reporter Wadea Abou Al Saoud posted on his channels that he and a group of other journalists will not eat until “the youngest child in Gaza has eaten.”
AFP issued a recent statement saying that for the first time in its bureau’s history, its journalists are facing death by starvation while reporting on the ground. The bureau gave details about the very small staff that is left in the besieged enclave, quoting their pleas for help. “I no longer have the strength to work for the media,” one of their photographers reported, “My body is thin and I can’t work anymore.” The bureau urged immediate international intervention, stating that they “refuse to let them die.”
Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif reported that “85% of Gaza’s population have entered the ‘fifth stage’ of malnutrition – the most critical and dangerous phase, which is often irreversible even if food becomes available in the future.” The journalist even broke down on a live broadcast – a physical representation of his words: “I am staggering from hunger, trembling from exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment.” He continued, speaking for journalists in Gaza as a whole saying, “We stand in front of the camera trying to appear strong, but the truth is that we are falling apart inside. Gaza is dying, and we are dying with it.”
Weightless words
Israel’s war crimes are not going without official condemnation.
The head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Jonathan Whittall post on X denouncing Israel’s starvation campaign: “…Gaza is being starved. Malnutrition is soaring. Hospitals lack essential supplies and are collapsing under relentless waves of casualties,” he wrote, adding that “a ceasefire is overdue, but that alone won’t end this atrocity. All orders of the court must be implemented.”
On Monday, multiple foreign ministers from 28 countries banded together to condemn what they described as “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food” in a collective joint statement.
The signees included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The statement marks a strong one as many of them, notably, are allies of Israel.
Israel responded with an X statement by Oren Marmorstein, foreign affairs spokesperson, stating that they reject the joint statement, calling it “disconnected from reality” and that it “sends the wrong message to Hamas.”
However, regardless of the slew of condemnations, these words are still weightless unless they come either with direct punitive action, and more specifically, from Israel’s strongest ally – the United States. Humanitarian organizations, journalists on the ground, and Palestinians themselves are urging that direct action is more important than ever, and that this catastrophe has surpassed merely a need for awareness campaigns and hashtags.
‘Bang the pots’
Local, grass-roots organizations on the ground, such as The Sameer Project, are doing their part to help. The “donations-based” aid initiative has a water campaign that they report provides 16,000 liters a day into central Gaza, specifically in Deir El Balah and Nuseirat, among other locations. They are also working simultaneously on other aid initiatives to provide medical services and food to desperate Gazans. The project has multiple ways in which those wishing to contribute can donate.
People around the world continue to mobilize for the Palestinian cause, in a time when it is needed more than ever. Morocco’s capital of Rabat witnessed thousands on its streets just this past Sunday, calling for an end to the genocide and denouncing Israel’s war crimes of mass killing and starvation.
“You are not helpless, this is a call for action!” Bisan posted. “Bang the pots, because the sound our empty stomach and voice of humanity must be louder than their brutality.”
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