The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born. The body of 5-month-old Zainab Abu Halib arrived at a hospital in southern Gaza on Friday and her family buried her on Saturday.

By SAMY MAGDY and MARIAM DAGGA Updated 9:15 PM EDT, July 26, 2025

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — A mother pressed a final kiss to what remained of her 5-month-old daughter and wept. Esraa Abu Halib’s baby now weighed less than when she was born.

On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid.

The baby was brought to the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest

  • homura1650@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    2 days ago

    The problem in Gaza is not a lack of money; or even a lack of food. It is the regional superpower using its overwhelming military support to block food entry and distribution. While explicitly blocking all organizations with a history and track record of successful aid provisioning in challenging war zones. Then replacing it with their own potenkin aid agency as members of their senior leadership talk openly about using starvation as a weapon of war.

    Even in the most charitable reading, donations like this do nothing to help on net. Assuming it is not an outright scam, you are just giving this one family some of the limited supply of food in Gaza. That means that you are depriving someone else in Gaza that food; because you did not actually introduce more food; and, one way or another, that food was going to get eaten.

    Adding more money to the equation does help fund the gangs running the food black market. I don’t mean to imply that such gangs are responsible for the crisis (they are not), or even that they are inherently bad (in a well run system, profit oriented local groups providing last mile distribution can be helpful). But, in this case, they are at best neutral.

    • helmet91@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Well, I cannot really argue with that. Sad, but true.

      However (I know this is highly speculative, but still possible scenarios), in these cases it could still make a positive impact overall if you donate:

      1. This is more likely: there are 2 million people there, and by the nature of money, even in these poor conditions there are richer and poorer. It’s possible that some families who have more cash reserves could hoard some of the precious food while others don’t have a chance. So basically your donation helps with equalizing the rations.
      2. This is highly unlikely: as the food prices are continuously increasing, there’s a point where no one will be able to afford any of the food items anymore, and the food stocks will rot unsold.

      In any case, probably there’s no point in trying to justify help. And it’s s tragedy that besides this family there are others, who also need help and we cannot help everyone. I guess, this is the typical “paralyzed victims on the tram tracks” problem in real life, and it’s extremely cruel, beyond comprehension.

      In the end of the day, it’s up to us if we try to help. They are humans. We are supposed to be humans too.

      And make no mistake: yes, absolutely, simultaneously we must work hard to achieve this genocide to end and give their life and dignity to those people back. Donating to individual families is not the solution, but it’s necessary to avert their immediate starvation.

      Other very important things to do:

      • Spread the word
      • Reach out to your government representatives and express your concerns and demand urgent actions
      • Go to the streets if there’s a demonstration nearby