World watches as Gaza starves to death

AS GAZA slips deeper into famine amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, and blocked humanitarian aid, horror stories are emerging from mothers desperately seeking food and water for their children.

- TRACY-LYNN RUITERS

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said at least 30 children have died of hunger since July 17 and about 60 000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023.

More than half a million people are already estimated to be in what is known as a stage 5 catastrophe yet, the genocidal policy of mass starvation and killing people desperately seeking food in Gaza continues unabated.

"Starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," the IPC said, calling for an end to hostilities between Israel and Palestine.

Youmna El Sayed, a mother of four and Al Jazeera English correspondent, left Gaza in January 2024, but she doesn't feel relief. She carries with her the weight of those left behind.

Now based just a few kilometres away, El Sayed said every day is a battle to reconcile the horror she’s witnessed with the expectation to “be normal”.

“It was and still is very complicated to live like a normal human being when you have your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours still living a daily genocide that you know how horrible it is, while you’re now in a place couple of kilometres away yet every other person lives a normal life and expects you to be normal like them. But they have no idea that this itself is a a complex trauma that we carry and live within every day.”

El Sayed lived in Gaza for a decade, having moved there permanently in 2014. Among the worst memories that haunt her as a mother, she recalled the day she couldn’t find drinking water for her children.