More Deadly Than Bombs: Starvation Claims Children’s Lives in Gaza

Samah Matar cradles her son Yousef, 6, north of Gaza City. Yousef, who has cerebral palsy and an emaciated body due to severe malnutrition, has lost nearly a third of his body weight since the start of the war. (An image grab from Facebook, courtesy of Saher Alghorra/The New York Times.)

More Deadly Than Bombs: Starvation Claims Children’s Lives in Gaza

By Bing Jabadan – TheNationWeek.Com  l July 30, 2025

GAZA CITY – “Our children are dying as the world watches. We don’t want your pity – we want action.”

These were the words of Alaa Abu Samara, father of three and Gaza emergency response manager for ActionAid Palestine.

Samara painted a harrowing picture of a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the besieged Gaza border.

As mass starvation grips Gaza, Samara’s desperate plea echoed the cries of countless parents watching their children succumb to hunger.

Samara, displaced with his family in Deir al-Balah, described a landscape of skeletal children, their eyes sunken and limbs as thin as sticks, too weak to cry.

“These children are dying in plain sight,” he wrote, “with heartbreaking images of emaciated bodies dominating newspapers and screens. And the world is watching. But not acting.”

His account comes as a recent letter signed by over 100 organizations, including ActionAid, sounded the alarm on the escalating hunger crisis in Gaza, two months after the Israeli government-controlled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began its operations.

The letter urges governments to act, highlighting the desperate need for the world to listen.

Massacres at GHF food distribution sites reportedly occur almost daily, with over 1,000 starving people killed while desperately seeking sustenance.

Coupled with the forced displacement of nearly two million Palestinians, conditions have become “impossible,” Samara said.

The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare constitutes a war crime, yet tons of essential supplies – food, water, medicine, and fuel – have been blocked from those in need.

“The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,” Samara stated.

Reports of acute diarrhea, empty markets, and people collapsing from hunger and dehydration underscore the severity of the situation.

With an average of only 28 trucks of aid entering Gaza daily, the needs of over two million people, many of whom have gone weeks without assistance, are far from being met.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report revealed that over 90 percent, or nearly two million, of Gaza’s population, many of them children, face crisis-level or catastrophic food insecurity.

Since October 2023, 113 people, including 81 children, have died from starvation.

“What we are seeing here is not a famine warning. It is famine, plain and simple. And it is claiming lives,” Samara declared.

In displacement camps, families are considered lucky if they can secure one meal a day.

Fresh produce is virtually non-existent, with the price of a kilo of tomatoes skyrocketing to $30.

Baby formula is scarce and often expired, forcing mothers to mix sugar and flour into water, risking their infants’ health.

“People are no longer afraid of air strikes; they are afraid of starvation,” Samara lamented, recounting conversations with neighbors who would rather die quickly in a bombing than endure the slow agony of hunger.

Despite global headlines and images of suffering, the world has failed to halt the devastation, he said.

While acknowledging the support of the Irish people and their recognition of Palestine, Samara urged governments to take decisive action by demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire, lifting restrictions, and opening all land crossings.

He also appealed to governments to reject military-controlled aid distribution and restore the UN-led humanitarian response.

Likewise, he called for states to halt the transfer of weapons and ammunition.

Samara dismissed the recent airdrops announced by the Israeli government as a “totally inadequate response” and an attempt to whitewash a policy of deliberate starvation.

“This type of piecemeal arrangement cannot replace the legal and moral obligations of states to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access to desperately needed aid,” he said.