A boy in the photo was staring blankly at one place with eyes that lost focus, with pale skin that looked like a skeleton, a sharply protruding chin, and a skinny body that looked like nothing but bones. His image, lying on the bed like a corpse with a needle stuck in his hand, was released on social media. The boy testified with his whole body to the miserable situation in Gaza, but it turned out to be dead.
On the 9th (local time), the New York Times (NYT) reported that Yazan Kafarne, a 10-year-old boy from the Gaza Strip who died after fighting diseases such as respiratory infection and cerebral palsy while suffering from malnutrition, had already died on the 4th. It is pointed out that this is a clear example of the poor situation in the Gaza Strip, which is suffering from hunger and malnutrition in a situation where humanitarian aid through land routes is not being provided smoothly.
View largerPhoto source: X (old Twitter)
Photo source: X (old Twitter)Yazan, who died, suffered from cerebral palsy. According to the NYT, before the war, his condition improved to the point where a physical therapist dispatched by a non-profit organization allowed him to swim through physical and drug therapy at Yazan’s home.
However, the situation changed drastically when Yazan’s family fled on October 7th last year after Hamas attacked Israel and Israel retaliated. Yazan needed soft, high-nutrition food, which was not available during the evacuation, and because his immune system was weaker than others, he had to leave the unsanitary shelter and move house several times.
Finally, Yazan’s family arrived in Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, where Israel had recently announced the deployment of large-scale ground forces. Yazan, who was receiving treatment at a hospital here, died from malnutrition and respiratory infection. According to the hospital medical staff who treated him, deterioration of the immune system due to lack of nutrition was identified as the main cause of death.
View largerPhoto source: X (old Twitter)Recently, about 20 children and elderly people in the Gaza Strip, including the boy Yazan, have been dying from starvation and dehydration. According to the NYT, health authorities in the Gaza Strip recently revealed that two of the children who died from malnutrition were infants less than two days old. Aid groups are warning that the ‘death procession’ due to malnutrition in the Gaza Strip has only just begun. Dr. Heather Stobo of the relief group Action Against Hunger told the NYT, “When children are severely malnourished and contract the virus, it is often a major cause of death. “If it weren’t for malnutrition, the child wouldn’t have died,” he said. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced last month that approximately 15% of children under 2 years of age in the northern Gaza Strip and 5% in the southern Gaza Strip were acutely malnourished.
Recently, the international community has been carrying out an operation to drop relief goods such as food and medical supplies from the air as it has become difficult for trucks transporting relief goods to enter the Gaza Strip by land. However, the cost is high, but it is difficult to deliver sufficient quantities, and controversy continues as a recent incident in which a parachute was incorrectly dropped resulted in the death of a civilian.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.