The hashtag #Gaza_is_dying_of_starvation has topped social media platforms in recent days, after it was launched by Palestinian activists from inside the besieged Gaza Strip, in a last attempt to communicate the voice of hunger that is killing the living after Israel’s bombing of buildings and bodies.

The platforms turned into an open space of pain, filled with terrifying images and clips showing children who have lost their childhood features, women lost in the search for a meal, and older people who cannot stand up due to their emaciation.

In the background of these images, Gaza looks like it has emerged from a world war, with no electricity, no flour, no medicine, and nothing but the cries of the hungry unheard by the world.

Israel has closed all Gaza’s crossings, preventing the entry of food and medicine, beginning a new chapter of annihilation, this time by starvation.

Bread is now a wish for Palestinians

Gazans are no longer able to secure the minimum essentials of life.

Flour – the first material of life – has almost disappeared, and if it is found it is at a price that exceeds the ability of any besieged person without income. Even bread is no longer food, but a wish that is repeated in the dreams of hungry children.

In a viral video, a child cries in front of the rubble of her house, saying: “enough about patience”.

In another scene, a cameraman asks a wounded child how he is doing and he replies, barely breathing: “hungry.”

Other images show small bodies with bones sticking out, mothers waiting in front of poorly-stocked charity shops, and voices saying:

We are looking for a loaf of bread, we don’t want more… We just want to stay alive.

Actual famine and a slow death

The Ministry of Health in Gaza issued a warning statement, declaring that the Gaza Strip is in a state of “actual famine,” characterized by a severe shortage of basic necessities, rampant malnutrition, and a complete collapse of the health system.

It noted that unprecedented numbers of starving people of all ages are arriving at emergency departments in a state of severe exhaustion, and that hundreds of cases are threatened with death at any moment.

The ministry explained that bread has become a “scarce currency” and that absent baby milk “is no longer food but a promise of life… born at the gates of the siege. It was born at the gates of the siege.”

According to the Gaza government media office, the number of deaths resulting from hunger and malnutrition has risen to 620 people, including 69 children, since October 7, 2023.

In addition, 650,000 children face the direct risk of death due to malnutrition, while about 60,000 pregnant women suffer from the lack of food and health care, which threatens their lives and the lives of their fetuses.

The world is called upon to wake up

Participation was not limited to the Gazan interior, but the interaction with the hashtag #Gaza_is_dying_of_starvation extended to the Arab and Western world, where activists called on the international community to pressure Israel to immediately open the crossings and allow the entry of food and medicine to save the remaining lives in Gaza.

Israel continues to carry out a comprehensive war that includes killing, starvation, destruction and displacement, with US support and international silence, leaving tens of thousands of victims between martyrs and wounded, hundreds of thousands of displaced people, thousands of missing people, and a famine that is considered one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history.

This is not an emergency food crisis, but a systematic starvation policy used as a weapon of war, imposed by Israel for many months as part of a strategy to tighten the siege and deepen the humanitarian catastrophe.

Gaza is starving and Palestinians cannot take any more

In light of the complete collapse of the health system and the worsening food shortage, Gaza is heading towards a total famine that threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands, amid increasing international warnings and humanitarian appeals that have not yet received an effective response from the international community.

While lenses continue to transmit images of Palestinian children who embrace air instead of milk, and document loaves of bread that have become more expensive than gold, the most pressing question remains, how long will the world remain silent about the famine of the century in Gaza?

Featured image via the Canary

By Alaa Shamali

This post was originally published on Canary.