The American newspaper documents the brutal humanitarian crisis affecting children, doctors and the entire society in the Gaza Strip. AFP journalists in Gaza are also exhausted. AFP reported: “Since the founding of the AFP in 1944, we have never seen journalists die of hunger.”
After four months of almost complete Israeli blockade, a catastrophe is unfolding in the Gaza Strip that, according to the American newspaper "Washington Post", is moving into the worst possible scenario: mass starvation has engulfed the entire territory, with babies dying from malnutrition, hospitals overflowing with hungry children, and doctors working in difficult conditions and barely able to stand on their feet.
According to the American newspaper, at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, babies with swollen bellies and skinny bodies lie in special rooms for malnutrition, while their mothers are silent from exhaustion. Old fans are the only sound in rooms where even the children's voices have died down.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 10 people had died of starvation in the past 24 hours alone, bringing the number of deaths from starvation since the start of the war to 111, including 6-week-old baby Yousef al-Safadi. In the photos released, his body was so small that the white shirt he was wearing slid over his exposed ribs.
“Their little bodies are collapsing – they’re not breathing, their immunity has collapsed,” says Scott Lea, interim head of the International Rescue Committee for the Palestinian territories, referring to the starving children.
Aid agencies, including the UN, have long warned of such a crisis, which worsened after Israel halted international aid and replaced it with distribution inside military zones. The aim, according to Israeli authorities, was to put pressure on Hamas, which on October 7, 2023, carried out a bloody attack on Israeli territory and still holds about 50 hostages.
But on the ground, the consequences are catastrophic. According to the UN, about one in three Gazans goes days without food, while hospital data shows a rise in deaths from malnutrition and starvation. UNICEF says these deaths are preventable, but Gaza's health system is collapsing.
Shockingly, doctors have also been badly affected. In an interview with the newspaper, the director of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital, Ahmed al-Faraa, said that the staff are fed lentil soup, while his colleague in Deir al-Balah, Eyad Amawi, had to interrupt the interview because of dizziness. He had lost 7 kilograms since the start of the war.
According to the Washington Post, of the more than 59,000 killed in Gaza according to local authorities, many are civilians, including children and women. Israel has sometimes allowed aid to enter, especially during a six-week ceasefire, but on March 2 the blockade was reimposed. It was only partially eased in May after international criticism and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fears that images of mass starvation could damage relations with the United States.
Although Israel claims that border crossings are open, according to the UN, decisions on the movement of aid rest entirely with the Israeli authorities, who control the quantity, composition and beneficiaries. Coordination on the ground faces numerous obstacles: damaged roads, ongoing fighting and obstructions by armed gangs.
Gaza's capacity for domestic production has been destroyed: farms, factories and warehouses have been leveled. The ordinary civilian is completely dependent on aid, which is often inaccessible. According to local data, more than 1,000 people have been killed by gunfire as they ran to food distribution points, which are under the control of American security contractors and where supplies are provided on a "first come, first served" basis.
In this harsh reality, mothers go without food for days so they can feed their children. In the al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza, Ayat al-Soradi told the Washington Post that her twins were born two months premature due to malnutrition. One died just 13 days after birth, while the other is still in the hospital in critical condition.
Another touching case is that of baby Sham Emkat, just two months old, who died of starvation at Rantisi Hospital. Her weight when she died was less than 2 kilograms.
In an open letter published on Wednesday, the Washington Post cited 115 humanitarian organizations – including Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps and Save the Children – as saying that the Israeli blockade and offensive are pushing more than 2 million people towards starvation, including their employees.
AFP journalists in Gaza are also exhausted. “The lives of our colleagues hang in the balance. They no longer have the strength to walk to report,” the agency said in a dramatic statement, adding: “Since the founding of AFP in 1944, we have never seen journalists die of hunger.”
This is the reality that The Washington Post brings to readers: a humanitarian crisis caused by a deliberate blockade that is destroying Gaza — not just as a territory, but as a human society. And with every day that silence prevails, the tragic toll grows.
(ER) (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
