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
I cannot disagree with that - in fact, that’s how I started my comment above. Normally I’d agree with donating to journalists and aid organizations instead, but in this case that doesn’t really work.
First of all, the key issues are already all in the news. It wasn’t always the case, but by now they clearly show the depth of this genocide. They aren’t showing everything, but they definitely show enough to convey what’s going on. Those who don’t understand it from this, won’t understand it from anything. That being said, yes, donate to journalists - theirs is one of the most important jobs in the world, and probably the most dangerous too, especially in Gaza - but I’d say, priorities have shifted a little bit.
Secondly, those people in Gaza are starving! They haven’t had a proper meal in weeks, and they are already collapsing in the streets, tens or hundreds are dying every day, not including those who are killed at “food distribution points” used as a bait. These people need help right now, this very moment. This won’t solve the root issues as we both agree on this, but it helps at least some of the people to survive a bit longer. The money that goes into solutions that will solve the core issues is very important too, but those will take a very long time. Time that these people don’t have, because they only have merely days or a week at best, some only hours.
This is so little in this mayhem, I’m pretty sure these donations have little or no effect on that. Prices are already skyrocketing, the available food items cost 15-50 times as much as they used to. Like $60 for 1 kg flour. And if it drives the prices up even more, then what? We have to, we need to, and we will donate more. I know this isn’t sustainable on the long term. In the meantime we have to go to demonstrations, we have to keep pushing our governments until they finally realize that something isn’t right and they impose sanctions on Israel. But what’s the point if in the meantime, those whom we’re trying to protect, starve to death?
I’m not gonna downvote your comment, you do have a point, but I have to say I don’t like this negative attitude.
It’s very cold and calculated but there’s no other option right now.
Israel is currently letting in aid because of the massive international outrage.
Don’t forget how little Israel spends on their media and how much it gets in return. Journalists like Dropsitenews are worth their weight in gold.