Istanbul, Turkiye – The fluorescent lights of Adana City Training and Research Hospital projected hard shadows through the glove face of Hamed Abu Zerka while he stands next to the bed of his six -month -old daughter’s hospital.
The 34 -year -old altered hands are trembling while he adjusts the cover of Habiba.
Abdullah, his four and a half year old son, died Tuesday morning in this same room, his small body finally succumbs to malnutrition which had consumed it slowly for months while Israel attended Gaza.
The family became emblems of the famine imposed by Israel at 2.1 million people from Gaza when an Abdullah video became viral weeks ago, the clearly uncluttered child screaming with hunger, asking for food, while his mother cried helpless.
Their story drew international attention and aroused the medical evacuation that brought them to Turkiye, who seemed to be salvation – but came too late for Abdullah.
Basma Abu Zerka, 30, is sitting in the corner holding a small pack of her son’s clothes. She speaks little, crying silently.
“We have lost our child. We live through enormous pain, ”says Hamed, his raw voice.
Hamed describes hollow the pain of looking without power that his children will waste.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNZD-PHDCCW
His voice cracks as he remembers the past few weeks in Gaza, when finding a single tomato has become an impossible dream.
“There is not even drinking water there. The bombs fall; there is hunger and death everywhere.”
“Abdullah and Habiba needed an urgent treatment,” continues Hamed, his eyes fixed on his daughter.
“Every day, they have become smaller, lower.”
The evacuation to Turkiye went through a humanitarian program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkish officials working diplomatic channels to ensure the passage of the family.
But the process took weeks – from the time that the defaulting body of Abdullah could not afford.
“Turkish officials contacted us and were with us until we arrived here,” said Hamed.
“We thank … all those who helped to help us. But we arrived with children who were already ghosts of themselves. ”
The flight to Adana was the first time that one or the other child left Gaza. Abdullah, barely aware of malnutrition, probably had no conscience of the trip. Habiba, younger and slightly more resilient, shouted weakly during takeoff.
Medical battle against time
At Adana Hospital, medical staff recognized the severity of children’s conditions.
Abdullah has arrived with serious complications resulting from prolonged malnutrition: organs dysfunction, collapse of the immune system and development delays that spoke of the months of inadequate nutrition.
Dr. Mehmet Yilmaz, the chief of the hospital in pediatric intensive care, has treated many children evacuated in conflict areas, but the conditions of the brothers and sisters of Abu Zerka were even shocked by the medical staff.
“These children often arrive with damage that has been built for months,” he explains.
For 10 days, the medical teams worked 24 hours a day to save Abdullah, administer specialized nutritional therapy, treat severe dehydration and monitor its vital organs while struggling to operate.
But the boy’s body, exhausted by months of hunger, could not respond to treatment.
“He was so small,” recalls the nurse Ayse Demir, who took care of Abdullah during her last days. “Even with all our equipment, all our drugs, we could not undo what months of famine had done to its small body.”
The United Nations estimate that more than 90% of the Gaza population faces severe food insecurity, with children particularly vulnerable to complications related to malnutrition.
Habiba
Habiba, six months, fights the same battle as her brother waged and lost.
Her small setting tells the same story of prolonged hunger – arms like twigs, visible ribs under translucent skin, eyes that seem too big for her face.
Medical staff are cautiously optimistic about their recovery prospects, noting that its youngest age can have protected them from some of the most serious complications.
Her parents keep a vigil that mixes hope with mourning, sleeping on chairs next to her bed, eating meals in the hospital while remembering family dinners at Gaza.
The couple do not know what will come. Their return to Gaza depends on the recovery of Habiba and the situation in their homeland. Meanwhile, they must deal with their loss far from the extended family, cultural rituals and familiarity which generally offers comfort during mourning.
Abdullah was cremated in the cemetery of the Gulbahcesi district of Adana, a quiet ceremony attended by residents who had never met the child but understood the universal language of parental loss.
Imam Mehmet Tasci directed prayers in Arabic while the Turkish neighbors were held respectfully next to the mourning family.
“We have buried our son in a foreign country,” says Hamed, his voice breaks completely. “He should have grown in the streets of Gaza, playing with children in the neighborhood, learning prayers from his grandmother. Instead, his grave is thousands of kilometers from all those who should have seen him grow.”
Local mosque leaders and Turkish families in the neighborhood organized continuous support for the Palestinian family, providing meals and emotional help during their prolonged hospital stay.
The cost of survival
“People ask when we go home,” says Hamed. “But how do you go back to a place where you watched your children waste?” How do you go back to the rooms where your son cried for the food you couldn’t provide? “
Turkiye has been one of the most active countries to provide medical evacuations to patients with Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians receiving treatment in Turkish hospitals since the start of the conflict.
However, the World Health Organization reports that only a fraction of people who need a medical evacuation from Gaza was able to leave.
Abdullah Abu Zerka lived four and a half years, most of them in wartime. Today, his parents cry for his loss by fighting to save their remaining child.
The play was published in collaboration with EGAB.
