Save the Children: Starving children in Gaza don’t even have the strength to cry
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The head of Save the Children, a children’s rights organization, described in shocking detail the slow suffering of starving children in Gaza, saying they are so physically weak they cannot even cry.
In her address to a UN Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the head of the international charity, Inger Ashing, said that famine—which the UN said last week was occurring in Gaza—is not just a technical term.
When there is insufficient food, children suffer from severe malnutrition and then die slowly and painfully. That, simply put, is what famine is, Ashing said.
She then described what happens when children die of starvation, a process she said takes several weeks. Ashing explained that the body initially uses its own fat to survive, but when its fat stores are depleted, it begins to consume itself, using muscle and vital organs.
Yet our clinics are almost silent. Children are unable to speak or cry from the pain. They lie, physically weak, slowly dying, Ashing said.
She emphasized that aid organizations were loudly warning of famine when Israel blocked the entry of food and other essential supplies into Gaza during the war.
Ashing said, “Everyone in this meeting has a moral and legal responsibility to take action to stop these atrocities.”
