By SAMY MAGDY and MARIAM DAGGA Updated 9:15 PM EDT, July 26, 2025
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — A mother pressed a final kiss to what remained of her 5-month-old daughter and wept. Esraa Abu Halib’s baby now weighed less than when she was born.
On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid.
The baby was brought to the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest
Hey, thank you if you consider donating!
The link is from @NouranKhaledGh@mastodon.social (with her consent I’m putting her profile here), and her interactions seem legit to me. Pictures of her siblings seem to be original, as I haven’t found them anywhere else, and I haven’t seen any signs of AI tampering. I even asked questions that I didn’t fully understand from the story in the fundraiser description, and her answer was plausible to me. I can confidently say this isn’t a scam.