NGO head says starving Gaza children are dying in agony, too weak to cry
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Ms Inger Ashing, head of Save the Children International, addressing a UN Security Council meeting on Aug 27.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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- Save the Children reports starving Gaza children are too weak to cry, describing a slow, agonising death from malnutrition due to famine.
- A UN-backed report states famine affects 500,000 in Gaza, projecting it to expand to two-thirds by September, prompting dire warnings.
- 14 Security Council members (excluding the US) condemn the use of starvation as a weapon, demanding an immediate end to Gaza famine.
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NEW YORK - The head of international charity Save the Children on Aug 27 described in horrific detail the slow agony of starving children in Gaza, saying they are so weak that they do not cry.
Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ms Inger Ashing said famine – declared by the UN last week to be happening in Gaza – is not just a dry technical term.
“When there is not enough food, children become acutely malnourished, and then they die slowly and painfully. This, in simple terms, is what famine is,” said Ms Ashing.
She went on to describe what happens when children die of hunger over the course of several weeks, as the body first consumes its own fat to survive and when that is gone, literally consumes itself as it eats muscles and vital organs.
“Yet, our clinics are almost silent. Now, children do not have the strength to speak or even cry out in agony. They lie there, emaciated, quite literally wasting away,” said Ms Ashing.
She said aid groups have been warning loudly that famine was coming as Israel prevented food and other essentials from entering Gaza over the course of two years of war triggered by Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel
“Everyone in this room has a legal and moral responsibility to act to stop this atrocity,” said Ms Ashing.
The UN on Aug 22 officially declared famine in Gaza
A UN-backed hunger monitor known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative said famine was affecting 500,000 people in the Gaza Governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza City.
Palestinians pleading for food at a charity kitchen in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Aug 27.
PHOTO: AFP
IPC projected that the famine would expand to cover around two-thirds of Gaza by the end of September.
Israel on Aug 27 demanded that the IPC retract the report,
After the Aug 27 Security Council meeting, 14 members – all but the US, Israel’s main ally – issued a joint declaration
“The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law. Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately,” the declaration says. AFP
