I have a large Palestinian family. I grew up in a house full of children: we are eight brothers and sisters. While my older brothers and sisters began to get married and have children, our family has become even greater. Every weekend, our family home filled with children.
I was looking forward to on Thursday to come, the day my married sisters would visit us with their children. My father would be shopping, my mother – busy cooking his daughters’ favorite dishes, and I would play with children. I have nine nieces and nephews in total, and I have great memories with and snuggle each of them. They are my family’s treasure because a homeless house is like a leave -free tree.
Despite the difficult life of the occupation and the siege in Gaza, my sisters and my brothers did their best to support the needs of their children and give them the best opportunity to study and continue their dreams.
Then the genocide started. The implacable bombardment, the constant displacement, the famine.
I have no children to myself, but I feel the excruciating pain of my sisters when they face the cries of their hungry children.
“I no longer have the strength to endure. I am tired of thinking about how to fill the empty stomach of my children. What can I prepare for them? ” My sister Samah recently shared.
She has seven children: Abdulaziz, 20, Sondos, 17, Raghad, 15, Ali, 11, Twins Mahmoud and Lana, 8, and Tasneem, 3. Like most other Palestinian families, they have been moved so many times that they have lost most of their possessions. The last time they saw their house in the Shujayea district, its walls were swept away, but its roof was still standing on the pillars. The plot of land in front of their house, which was planted with olive and lemon tree, had been bulldozer.
Samah’s family was counting on food has been preserved since the start of the war. Since Israel blocked help in early March and the aid distribution stopped, they had trouble finding cans of beans or chickpeas. Now they are lucky if they manage to find a bowl of lens or a miche of bread.
Day after day, Samah had to watch his children suffer, lose weight and get sick.
Lana suffers the most. It measures 110 cm (3 feet 7 inches), but only weighs 13 kg (28.7 pounds). Her parents took her to a clinic where she was examined and confirmed that he was suffering from severe malnutrition. It was recorded in a nutritional supplements distribution program, but has not yet received anything. There was not available.
Lana’s yellow body is so weak that it is unable to stand for long periods or walk in the event that they are suddenly forced to flee. Everything she wants is sleeping and sitting without being able to play with her brother. I cannot believe what has become of her: she was a girl with red cheeks full of energy, who played all the time with her brothers and sisters.
We regularly hear news about children who die of malnutrition, and it is the worst fear of Samah: that she can lose her daughter.
Although he has trouble feeding his family, Samah refuses to allow her husband, Mohammed, to go to one of the distribution of aid from Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. She knows it is a death trap. She wouldn’t make him risk his life for a plot of food that he might not even be able to get.
In the middle of the famine, my other sister, Asma, gave birth to her second child, Wateen. She is now two months old, and because of a lack of nutrition, she suffers from jaundice. I only saw Wateen in the photos. She weighed two and a half kilograms (5.5 pounds) at birth. She looked yellow and sleeping on all her photos.
The doctors said that her breastfeeding mother could not provide her with the nutrients she needs because she is herself undernourished. Wateen must be nourished with highly saturated formula milk, which is not available because Israel blocks the delivery of all baby formulas in Gaza.
Asmaa is now afraid that Wateen will develop malnutrition because she is unable to provide her with nutritious milk. “I founded like a candle!” When will this suffering end? ” She said recently.
My heart is tearing up when I speak with my sisters and hears about their pain and hunger that ravages their children.
Israeli occupation forces have already killed more than 18,000 children since he launched the genocide. Some 1.1 million still survive. Israel wants to make sure they have no future.
It is not an unfortunate consequence of war; It is a war strategy.
Malnutrition is not only a serious weight loss. It is a devastating condition that damages the vital internal organs of the body, such as the liver, the kidneys and the stomach. It affects the growth and development of children and leads to a higher predisposition to diseases, learning difficulties, cognitive disorders and psychological problems.
By sampling Palestinian children, by depriving them of education and health care, the occupier aims to achieve a goal: to create a fragile generation, weak in mind and constitution, unable to think and without horizon other than to seek food, drinks and a shelter. This means a generation which is unable to defend the right to its land and to resist the occupier. A generation that does not understand the existential struggle of its people.
The war plan is clear and the objective was publicly stated by Israeli officials. The question is now: will the world allow Israel to destroy the children of Gaza?
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.