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Conflict in the Middle East
Original poster

The Children Starve First

332 replies

Municipal · 21/05/2025 20:43

I wanted to open a space to reflect on something that’s been haunting me.

I've noticed in reports from Gaza that children are dying of starvation at shocking rates — even more than adults. At first I wondered how this could be, given that children need less food than adults. But I’ve since learned that children are actually the first to die in famine situations.

Here’s why:

  • Children have smaller bodies but higher nutritional needs per kilogram, especially during growth spurts. They need regular, balanced intake to maintain development.
  • Malnutrition hits them faster — their energy stores are smaller, and their bodies have less ability to adapt to a lack of nutrients.
  • Their immune systems weaken rapidly, making them far more likely to die from diseases that an adult body might fight off.
  • Infants and toddlers can’t chew tougher emergency rations or go without water as long, and breastfed babies suffer if their mothers are dehydrated or malnourished.
  • The UN says that in every famine, the first to die are the smallest and weakest.
The stories of babies dying in their mothers’ arms — not from bombs or bullets but from hunger — are unbearable. I can’t stop thinking about the terror and anguish these parents must feel. How helpless it must be to watch your child fade away slowly, knowing you have nothing left to give them.

I know we talk about current events, about war, politics, sides — but surely, we can unite around this: no child should starve to death in their mother’s arms.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
11
Odras · 22/05/2025 12:15

@AIBUHere If nobody is starving why did Netanyahu say they would have to let in aid “for diplomatic reasons” because governments “would not tolerate images of mass starvation”

Never mind that there is loads of images of starving people.

MummytoE · 22/05/2025 11:44

AIBUHere · 22/05/2025 10:49

Do you even realise how much aid Hamas/PIJ has stockpiled for themselves and to sell for munitions to prolong this war?

They have seized whole trucks of aid in the hundreds.

Hamas are the sole factor in baby food and formula not reaching babies. There should be at least 4 months worth in the strip.

Where are the starving babies btw? If there were any SM would be awash with videos of them.

How many pro-Palestinians wanted to see evidence of rape and murder on Oct 7th and still deny it to this day? That was extremely shocking.

It only works for one side in your echo bubble?

How many kinds of delusional to do you have to be to believe a terrorist organisation, and their supporters in high places, who’s only real weapon in the evil war they started, is anti Israel propaganda and antisemitism?

Haaretz is nothing but an extreme left wing trash bin liner with views that have contributed to the war Israel is having to fight today.

Appeasing evil terrorists who have stated an intention to wipe you out doesn’t end well.

Show quote history

Social media is awash with them. The rest of us see it
Genocide supporters will look away, pretend it isn't happening, excuse it

YourOnMute · 22/05/2025 11:30

I've seen too many starving children on my social media.
And dead children, child amputees, disabled children, children with raging infections.
How come you're not seeing this?

Igotjelly · 22/05/2025 11:11

Appeasing evil terrorists who have stated an intention to wipe you out doesn’t end well.

You mean like the comments made by Ben-Gvir about destroying the Gaza Strip and putting the civilians in the equivalent of a ghetto?

Igotjelly · 22/05/2025 11:09

@AIBUHere do you accept that Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu are extremist war criminals?

Igotjelly · 22/05/2025 11:08

AIBUHere · 22/05/2025 10:49

Do you even realise how much aid Hamas/PIJ has stockpiled for themselves and to sell for munitions to prolong this war?

They have seized whole trucks of aid in the hundreds.

Hamas are the sole factor in baby food and formula not reaching babies. There should be at least 4 months worth in the strip.

Where are the starving babies btw? If there were any SM would be awash with videos of them.

How many pro-Palestinians wanted to see evidence of rape and murder on Oct 7th and still deny it to this day? That was extremely shocking.

It only works for one side in your echo bubble?

How many kinds of delusional to do you have to be to believe a terrorist organisation, and their supporters in high places, who’s only real weapon in the evil war they started, is anti Israel propaganda and antisemitism?

Haaretz is nothing but an extreme left wing trash bin liner with views that have contributed to the war Israel is having to fight today.

Appeasing evil terrorists who have stated an intention to wipe you out doesn’t end well.

Show quote history

I don’t necessarily believe Hamas but I do believe the British doctors who have been very vocal on what they’re seeing in Palestine. Are you saying that no children are starving? That the UN, Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders etc are all lying?

AIBUHere · 22/05/2025 10:49

Stripes56 · 22/05/2025 07:42

Yes Hamas should release hostages
Yes Hamas is evil
Yes Hamas may have stolen aid at times of restrictions (due to Israel)

Happy now?

But no- Hamas are not now in any way a substantial factor in the baby food and formula not reaching starving babies!

I read this and was shocked that people could think of needing to see the starving children as only a matter of PR for Israel. Your post shows it’s clearly true.

« How many different kinds of delusional do you have to be to air horrifying footage of human suffering beneath a voiceover lamenting the challenges of public relations?

What does it say about a society when you can look at a child – sunken-eyed and silent with fear and grief – and decide the real injustice is that she's hogging the spotlight? »

https://archive.ph/WKP4A

Edited
Show quote history

Do you even realise how much aid Hamas/PIJ has stockpiled for themselves and to sell for munitions to prolong this war?

They have seized whole trucks of aid in the hundreds.

Hamas are the sole factor in baby food and formula not reaching babies. There should be at least 4 months worth in the strip.

Where are the starving babies btw? If there were any SM would be awash with videos of them.

How many pro-Palestinians wanted to see evidence of rape and murder on Oct 7th and still deny it to this day? That was extremely shocking.

It only works for one side in your echo bubble?

How many kinds of delusional to do you have to be to believe a terrorist organisation, and their supporters in high places, who’s only real weapon in the evil war they started, is anti Israel propaganda and antisemitism?

Haaretz is nothing but an extreme left wing trash bin liner with views that have contributed to the war Israel is having to fight today.

Appeasing evil terrorists who have stated an intention to wipe you out doesn’t end well.

Odras · 22/05/2025 09:41

@Dunnop I’m so sorry for your loss. You are so right as well. This cruelty will breed hate. You can’t bomb and starve your way to peace.

SalmonDreams · 22/05/2025 08:42

Dunnop · 22/05/2025 01:29

It’s utterly disgraceful that humans can be so awful as to accept children dying. My cchild
died. It is the worst pain. If another country had been responsible for my child’s death I would hate that country to my last breath, as would all my family. This situation breeds hate, it doesn’t stop it. Or curb it. It makes it worse, and dying children is not an acceptable side effect of achieving a military or terrorist aim or whatever.

I'm so sorry for your loss and your pain. And I can only imagine how triggering this might be for you. Huge hugs and take good care of yourself.

Kakeandkake · 22/05/2025 08:31

Odras · 22/05/2025 08:16

I tell myself they can’t be real people. You’d think we could all agree that no child should ever die of hunger, especially on a parenting site.

Show quote history

Some have been radicalised by the extremists on X. You see them repeating the same words from there.

JuneFET · 22/05/2025 08:30

Idkw2d · 21/05/2025 21:41

I think anyone with basic reading comprehension can deduce that these are just excuses coming from the Israeli govt. They are now committing a war crime. They are purposely starving and killing Palestinians.

also, what about the hostages???!

The hostages are also starving to death, aren’t they?

Show quote history

I can see the logic behind this but it all falls apart when you see how they are not helping the innocent. There is the potential to starve hamas of finance whilst moving the vulnerable to safety. They have to want to do it though .

Odras · 22/05/2025 08:16

Igotjelly · 22/05/2025 05:53

Some of the responses on this thread now are utterly horrifying. Do people really have so little humanity?

I tell myself they can’t be real people. You’d think we could all agree that no child should ever die of hunger, especially on a parenting site.

Stripes56 · 22/05/2025 07:42

AIBUHere · 22/05/2025 00:46

And absolutely no accountability for the Hamas leaders on this thread as usual, who could have stopped this war today, or even 18 months ago.

The 14,000 starving babies in 48 hours was a gross distortion of a UN IPC report which estimated that figure of child deaths COULD occur over the course of a YEAR if enough aid does not get in as clarified by the BBC.

www.bbc.com/news/articles/crk2264nrn2o.amp

Meanwhile Hamas leaders are currently directing their side of the war while sitting comfortably abroad with billions stashed away.

Why are there no calls for them to be apprehended? Why have ICC arrest warrants not be issued?

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/syd4200lake#

Khalil Al-Hayya, the defacto leader of Hamas in Gaza made a statement in January highlighting that Hamas leaders are “at the forefront of the martyrs, standing side-by-side with their people in the same trenches, sharing their sacrifices and their blood.” He added that these leaders “offered their lives willingly for the sake of God, fighting alongside the soldiers, unafraid of death, engaging with the enemy on the front lines of resistance for the sake of a free and proud Palestine.”

Not him though as he’s apparently abroad.

He also affirmed that all these martyrs “left behind a generation raised on the teachings of the Quran and the battlefields of holy war and resistance, having the awareness, understanding, and determination to carry forward the mission and complete what the founding leaders, led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, began.”

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/509297/Hamas-leader-Palestinians-humiliated-occupiers

Note the reference to the holy war and from that you can assume he means the original Hamas Charter stands.

Hamas doctrine attached:
www.wilsoncenter.org/article/doctrine-hamas

Doesn’t look like they’re going to surrender anytime soon for the sake of their starving children.

I suppose most posters on here think Israel should, as the stronger force, as has never happened in any war in history.

Yes Hamas should release hostages
Yes Hamas is evil
Yes Hamas may have stolen aid at times of restrictions (due to Israel)

Happy now?

But no- Hamas are not now in any way a substantial factor in the baby food and formula not reaching starving babies!

I read this and was shocked that people could think of needing to see the starving children as only a matter of PR for Israel. Your post shows it’s clearly true.

« How many different kinds of delusional do you have to be to air horrifying footage of human suffering beneath a voiceover lamenting the challenges of public relations?

What does it say about a society when you can look at a child – sunken-eyed and silent with fear and grief – and decide the real injustice is that she's hogging the spotlight? »

https://archive.ph/WKP4A

Odras · 22/05/2025 07:34

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

That’s so “interesting”

The answer is in the OP. Children starve first basically. Adults can go 40 days or more without food. The smallest infants only a week. The deaths you are hearing about now are probably children dying from illnesses that they can’t fight off due to malnutrition. But if nothing is done, children will simply starve to death in great numbers.

Illnesses are spreading fast in Gaza because people have lost their homes - 92% of homes have been destroyed by Israel - so are living in temporary shelters where disease spreads easily. The sewage system was also targeted by the bombs so raw sewage is posing another risk to weakened kids.

By the time you see the images that you are waiting for - of stick thin adults basically, it will be too late to save lives.

FOJN · 22/05/2025 07:31

Lovethesparklylights · 22/05/2025 05:48

Dumb question maybe but just looked at a map and seem to be that Palestine borders Lebanon, Syria and Jordan at least and it's not surrounded by Israel.

So why can't aid come in from those borders, why does it need to come from Israel.

Horrible that children die at any time, especially in a war.

The West Bank has a border with Jordan and is otherwise surrounded by Israel and Gaza has a border with Egypt but is otherwise surrounded by Israel. I think you have a map which is telling you that Israel is Palestine.

Odras · 22/05/2025 07:10

Lovethesparklylights · 22/05/2025 05:48

Dumb question maybe but just looked at a map and seem to be that Palestine borders Lebanon, Syria and Jordan at least and it's not surrounded by Israel.

So why can't aid come in from those borders, why does it need to come from Israel.

Horrible that children die at any time, especially in a war.

Jordon was air dropping aid at one stage as were other countries but Israel control Gaza’s borders and now there is a block on all aid. That includes medical aid, even painkillers for children who have lost a limb in the bombings.

pomegranat3 · 22/05/2025 06:50

Igotjelly · 22/05/2025 05:53

Some of the responses on this thread now are utterly horrifying. Do people really have so little humanity?

I think you’ll find this on all social media posts discussing the genocide. Humanity has most certainly been lost

EmeraldShamrock000 · 22/05/2025 06:46

BeJollyEagle · 22/05/2025 03:06

Couldn’t these use drones? Is there any repercussions if someone did that? Like if I was a millionaire I would buy loads of food and water and try and get a way into there. Why aren’t people doing more?

Show quote history

They're afraid of being accused of being hamas supporters.
I have never supported hamas, their actions on October,7th was evil, in the next breath, the retaliation against innocent people is going to far.
Palestine is a mass graveyard.
Israel has lashed out at any countries who voice their concerns.

Tatemoderndrawyourown · 22/05/2025 06:34

Why is Israel blocking journalists from entering (now mostly occupied!!) Palestinian territories? That’s all I need to know to decide on which side I am.

Whereismyjoiedevivre · 22/05/2025 05:55

It’s beyond belief. We’re watching it happen and are doing nothing. Shame on the world - not acting for fear of being called anti-Semitic.

The entire Israeli government needs to go before The Hague courts then be locked up until they die.

Igotjelly · 22/05/2025 05:53

Some of the responses on this thread now are utterly horrifying. Do people really have so little humanity?

Lovethesparklylights · 22/05/2025 05:48

Dumb question maybe but just looked at a map and seem to be that Palestine borders Lebanon, Syria and Jordan at least and it's not surrounded by Israel.

So why can't aid come in from those borders, why does it need to come from Israel.

Horrible that children die at any time, especially in a war.

Neurodiversitydoctor · 22/05/2025 05:47

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

There was a woman on tthe channel 4 news last night, talking about her child being hungrey- she looked pretty thin. As others have said the babies die first- it's horrible. As for those that do surrive how much will they hate the Israeli state ? As well as instigating a genocide the Isralis are making sure they will always be unrest in the region.

quantumbutterfly · 22/05/2025 05:24

Dunnop · 22/05/2025 01:29

It’s utterly disgraceful that humans can be so awful as to accept children dying. My cchild
died. It is the worst pain. If another country had been responsible for my child’s death I would hate that country to my last breath, as would all my family. This situation breeds hate, it doesn’t stop it. Or curb it. It makes it worse, and dying children is not an acceptable side effect of achieving a military or terrorist aim or whatever.

And yet Yarden Bibas doesn't talk of hate and perpetuating hatred.....
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/yardan-bibas-speaks-of-the-day-he-made-a-face-to-face-plea-to-hamas-chief-sinwar/

Yarden Bibas speaks of the day he made a face-to-face plea to Hamas chief Sinwar

Former captive recounts chilling tunnel encounter and emotional reunion with best friend still held in Gaza

https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/yardan-bibas-speaks-of-the-day-he-made-a-face-to-face-plea-to-hamas-chief-sinwar

Original poster
Municipal · 22/05/2025 05:08

To the person asking why are the children starving and not the adults, did you even read the OP?

OP posts: