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Subject: Do you know what a starving child in Gaza goes through?
Date: Sun, 25 May 2025 10:34:57 -0600
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https://trt.global/world/article/9f9cc68ce4e3


Kazim AlamKazim Alam
May 23, 2025
In every image emerging from Gaza, there is a haunting sameness: 
children reduced to skin and bone. Their brittle frames limp in the arms 
of parents or medics. Their vitamin-deficient dry eyes staring at a 
world that passes them by.

Thousands of children face acute starvation in the war-ravaged Gaza as 
Israel banned for nearly three months all food and medicine from 
reaching 2.3 million Palestinians facing nonstop bombing for 20 months.

It allowed only a small number of aid trucks to enter the territory 
earlier this week as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feared 
international allies would withdraw support over “images of hunger”.

But for many, it’s too little, too late. UN officials described the 
small volume of aid allowed into Gaza by Israel as “a drop in the ocean”.

Experts say that the effects of long-term malnutrition on a child are 
insidious, irreversible and more than one.

“They stop playing… they don’t even have the energy to play,” says Livia 
Tampellini, doctor at the emergency cell of Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Speaking to TRT World, she explains that play, even amid sickness, is a 
child’s instinctive expression of life. “The day a child stops playing 
is painful… you don’t need to be a doctor to feel sad.”

UNICEF reported last week 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers 
in Gaza needed urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.

More than 116,000 tonnes of food assistance sufficient for one million 
people for up to four months is already positioned in aid corridors, but 
Israel is not letting aid agencies bring it into the occupied territory.

The UN children’s agency estimates “tens of thousands” of malnutrition 
cases are expected in the coming year as Gaza teeters on the brink of a 
famine.

As many as 71,000 children and 17,000 mothers in Gaza need urgent 
treatment for acute malnutrition. Photo: AP
As many as 71,000 children and 17,000 mothers in Gaza need urgent 
treatment for acute malnutrition. Photo: AP

Anatomy of a starving child

The physiology of a starving child differs from that of a starving 
adult. Unlike adults, children devote most of their nutrition to growth 
and brain development. Adults have reserves to draw from. Children do not.

“Even the little energy reserves that a child maintains under normal 
circumstances are long gone in the case of kids living in Gaza,” 
Tampellini says. “They have not been eating normally for a long time.”

The impact goes beyond the visible emaciation. Hunger at this level 
stunts growth, weakens bones, and disrupts immune function. The 
prototypical signs—sunken eyes, skeletal limbs, distended bellies—are 
matched by a profound lethargy.

According to Tampellini, surviving starvation is even tougher for the 
children in Gaza because they have been living in a war zone with severe 
food shortages for nearly 20 months.

Chronic hunger also leads to a reduced appetite as starving children 
lose even the motivation to eat. Their capacity to remain attentive and 
focus becomes “less and less” with each passing day.

“A malnourished body is an immunocompromised body,” Tampellini adds. “So 
even a little diarrhoea or a little infection could affect it badly and 
more frequently. A malnourished child will be sicker longer.”

Worse still, Gaza’s medical infrastructure lies in ruins. “Their 
capacity to provide treatment for diarrhoea or pneumonia is less, far 
lesser than before,” Tampellini adds.

According to the World Health Organization, only 19 of Gaza’s 36 
hospitals remain functional, operating in what it calls “impossible 
conditions.” At least 94 percent of all hospitals in Gaza are either 
damaged or destroyed while north Gaza has been “stripped of nearly all 
health care”.

According to WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan, the entire 
population of Gaza was “in imminent danger of death”. “We need to end 
the starvation, we need to release all hostages, and we need to resupply 
and bring the health system back online.”

Shorouk Ayyad, mother of malnourished Palestinian child from Gaza, Rahaf 
Ayyad, 12, shows signs of malnutrition on her daughter's back. Photo: 
Reuters
Shorouk Ayyad, mother of malnourished Palestinian child from Gaza, Rahaf 
Ayyad, 12, shows signs of malnutrition on her daughter's back. Photo: 
Reuters

Mental health at risk

Even as the body collapses, the effects of starvation on a child’s mind 
are equally harrowing.

The psychological impact of extreme malnourishment is profound, 
unpredictable and often invisible, Rabia Yavuz, a clinical psychologist 
associated with Istanbul's Medipol University, tells TRT World.

“Hunger signals danger to the body, forcing the brain into survival 
mode,” she explains. “In this state, higher functions like focusing, 
learning, and emotional regulation are pushed aside.”

A starving child may become numb, anxious, or hyper-vigilant. Instead of 
imagining a future, their mind becomes trapped in desperate insecurity.

“Hunger doesn’t just gnaw at the belly. It erodes the foundations of 
mental stability,” she says.

If the child somehow survives chronic hunger, they grow up to be an 
adult who struggles to trust, feel safe, regulate emotions, or form 
healthy relationships, she says.

“The nervous system learns from experience… Later in life, this may show 
up as anxiety, depression, a deep sense of unworthiness, or even 
physical illnes
-- 
First we will destroy your identity. Then we will teach you your past
was evil. You will conclude yourself that your inheritance, your
homeland, your ancestors and your people are underserving of it all.
Then we will complete your dispossession and dissolve you into the final
phase of the Kalergi Plan.



https://www.globalgulag.us