Gaza: Humanitarian workers on the ground are sounding the alarm as Gaza teeters on the edge of full-scale famine, with horrifying scenes emerging from clinics and emergency rooms across the besieged enclave.
Nutritionist Rana Soboh, working with MedGlobal, described being pushed to her emotional limits after witnessing two harrowing cases of extreme malnutrition in just 24 hours. Speaking to the Associated Press, Soboh recalled the first—a mother who fainted while trying to breastfeed her newborn. The infant, she said, had not eaten in days.
The very next day, Soboh encountered a one-year-old boy at another medical facility who weighed only 5 kilograms (11 pounds)—less than half the normal weight for his age. He had not developed any teeth and was so weak he couldn't cry. His mother, too, was critically malnourished. Soboh described her as “a skeleton, covered in skin.”
When the mother asked for food, Soboh broke down in tears. “This is the worst feeling—wanting to help but knowing you can’t,” she said. “I wished the earth would crack open and swallow me. What more cruel scenes does the world need to see?”
Soboh confessed that she sometimes gives away what little food or money she has to desperate families, but even aid workers are now struggling to survive.
The dire conditions are the result of Israel’s ongoing blockade of aid into Gaza, which has led to widespread food shortages and placed over a million people at imminent risk of starvation, according to humanitarian organizations. Despite international appeals, access to critical food and medical supplies remains severely restricted.
Experts now warn that Gaza is not simply approaching famine—it is in the early stages of one. The World Food Programme and other agencies report that children are dying from hunger-related complications, and if the blockade continues, the scale of death could rapidly accelerate.
Amid one of the deadliest and most protracted sieges in modern history, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening by the hour. Aid workers like Soboh continue to witness scenes no one should have to see—and the world continues to watch.
[SOURCE CREDIT: AL JAZEERA]
