The people of Gaza didn’t need this week’s official UN-backed report confirming that famine is taking hold. For months, they’ve watched their children grow weaker by the day.
“My children have all lost nearly half their weight,” said Jamil Mughari, a 38-year-old from Maghazi in central Gaza. “My five-year-old daughter now weighs just 11kg. My son Mohammad is skin and bones. All of them are like this. I used to weigh 85kg—now I’m down to 55.”
He struggles to find the strength to search for food. “Sometimes, walking down the street, I feel dizzy, like I might collapse, but I force myself to keep going. Sometimes my whole body shakes.”
This week, Gaza reached two grim milestones. The official Palestinian death toll surpassed 60,000, though the true number—including those buried under rubble from Israeli airstrikes—is likely much higher.
The toll will keep rising as starvation becomes as deadly as bombs and bullets. On Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed expert panel, confirmed what many had feared: famine has arrived.
“The worst-case scenario is unfolding in Gaza,” the IPC warned, urging a ceasefire to prevent further suffering.
Gaza’s 2.2 million people have become experts in hunger, forced to scavenge daily under Israel’s severe aid restrictions.
Mughari says food is nearly impossible to find. “We go weeks without flour. Sometimes we have one meal a day—just lentils. Other days, nothing. We drink water to feel full.”
His family has fled seven times since the war began, but hunger follows them everywhere.
“Sometimes we get lentils from donations or borrow money to buy them—that’s it,” he said. “Soup kitchens don’t reach us; they serve only certain camps, and even then, barely enough. The Israelis claim aid is coming, but only the strong or armed take it, then sell it at impossible prices. How can the poor afford that?”
Across Gaza, aid distribution sites open for mere minutes each day, drawing desperate crowds. Many have been shot by Israeli forces while seeking food, leaving scores dead or wounded.
Mansoura Fadl al-Helou, a 58-year-old widow, is too weak to go herself and won’t let her son risk it. “The chaos is terrifying—men shoving, fighting. My only son is all I have left. I can’t let him become another martyr.”
Mughari, who has undergone open-heart surgery, has children under 12. Even if they tried to search for food, they wouldn’t stand a chance.“I try to stay strong so I can feed my children,” he said. “We’ve sent countless pleas to the world, but no one has acted. We don’t even know what else to say. All I can tell the world is this: we are dying slowly—save us from this nightmare.”
### Food Aid Entering Gaza by Month (2025)
Among the many horrors of the Israel-Gaza war, few are as agonizing as parents watching their children starve, powerless to help.
“My youngest daughter is 14, and her ribs are visible from extreme weakness and malnutrition,” said Abu al-Abed, a father from Deir al-Balah. “I have four daughters and three sons. They suffer from dizziness and exhaustion because there’s no food. If I, their father, feel this way, imagine how much worse it is for them.”
He explained that they receive no aid, and the food in markets is too expensive to afford more than scraps. “Prices are sky-high—worse than inflation in Europe. And here in Gaza, there’s no income at all.”
“There used to be soup kitchens, but now they’re gone. No one gives out free meals anymore.”
(Image: Palestinians struggling to receive meals from a charity in Gaza City, July 2024. Photo: Anadolu/Getty Images)
He no longer believes the world cares. “For years, they preached about human rights and protecting lives. Now I see it was all a lie—we were fooled by empty slogans.”
“If we’d asked them to protect animals in Gaza, they would’ve moved mountains. But when it comes to Palestinians, no one remembers us—not Arabs, not Muslims, not Christians, no one.”
The recent official recognition of Gaza’s famine brought a sliver of hope that the world might finally act—though past experience leaves little faith in real change.
Al-Helou said, “We’ve suffered this famine for so long with no help. I hope this message finally moves the world to save us from this slow death.”
News of the UK’s pledge to recognize Palestine in September—unless Israel changes course—did little to reassure her.
“What good is recognition if Palestine has no sovereignty, no right to defend itself?” she asked. “It’s a positive step, but it must be real—not symbolic. A state with true rights, true sovereignty, and a people treated like any other nation.”
