Malnourished starving children in Gaza

[babyproblems]

The photos that appeared this morning on my news updates of mothers holding their children, dying of starvation and extreme malnutrition in Gaza have absolutely broken my heart. I am not particularly news focused, of course I’ve followed it all but this morning it has stopped me in my tracks and took my breath away. As a mother of a 3yo DS who is sleeping peacefully in his bedroom, whilst we have a fridge full of food downstairs and a life of peace, I feel so sorry that those poor mothers and children are living this hell so undeserved and also so so lucky we have the peace we do…
I don’t really know what the point of my post is; I suppose I’m screaming When Will This End inside and want to tell everyone to not take the freedom and peace we have for granted; use your right to vote and use your privilege to make informed choices that steer the world away from conflict towards peace…

Sending a handhold to all the mothers’ whose lives are not being lived in peace and whose children are suffering 🕊️💔

How could Hamas stop it tomorrow?

All Hamas have to do is release the remaining hostages. Israel will immediately provide food, water and humanitarian aid. Israel will release all the Palestinians it has been torturing, including children. Then rebuild all the destroyed infrastructure. Hamas are easy to spot as they're well fed.

Why do you think it isn't available? Do you know that it is being taken out of the suitcases of International doctors by Israel as they try to enter Gaza? How does knowing that Israel are taking life saving formula from the Drs trying to help them make you feel?

How can you keep your, 'emotions in check' seeing those images, this is Mumsnet, of all places to be so detached about children dying of starvation!

How do you know this?

In the meantime what happens to these children?

Why are you persistently pontificating about definitions of 'famine' @Comedycook. Do you think children on the brink of death are bothered about whether famine has been 'officially declared' or 'oh look, what's happening in Yemen,' or 'well some people have underlying health conditions after all.' WTAF!

Seriously, what is it you need here?

Of course some children in Gaza will have 'underlying health conditions.' So would your children if their homes had been turned to rubble. Imagine if your children had lost family members or were orphaned or injured themselves. If they had been forced to drink contaminated water and had been living on very basic rations. Living in tents in close proximity to others, ie. conditions where disease runs rife.

Of course it's always infants, the elderly and the sick who are most vulnerable as famine takes hold of a population. This hardly needs to be said.

Do you think you know better than the medics on the ground in Gaza who are clearly stating that famine is taking hold? What do you want to wait for? How bad do things have to get? What is your point?

They could have stopped it last week, last month, or last year.

this from Wikipedia

In short, they want the prisoners hamas took (remember, they started all of this) and some sort of insurance against them deciding to nip out first thing Monday morning and do it all again.

Not unreasonable. I’d feel the same. Wouldn’t you?

Really?? At least your post recognises that Israel are torturing Palestinians including children - a war crime.

In the wiki article you have screenshot it says Israel breached the ceasefire at the end of the first phase. it also states that Netanyahu is unwilling to support a ceasefire and release of hostages. Nowhere does it say anything about Hamas not following the terms you have screenshot

If the Guardian was my only source on the Israel-Gaza war, and if I only tuned into the BBC or TikTok, I might be in the streets chanting against Israel too.

OP: when you manipulate context, cherry-pick images—many of which are clearly staged, fake, or recycled from war zones like Syria (I’ve even caught The Times publishing contrived photos)—and prioritise a narrative over truth, you’re not reporting the news; you’re manufacturing consent for hate. We see the consequences of this daily here in MN, it’s evident on this very board.

And until we confront the media's role in anti-Israel bias and fuelling antisemitism, the truth will never get to see the light of day and it will be impossible to stop the tidal wave of hate.

I actually think the lot you are making life much, much harder for Palestinians and are part of the problem - your misplaced outrage is fuel for Hamas which is prolonging this war. That is shameful.

It’s a genocide.

The dehumanising of Palestinians is utterly shameful.

If you have not heard Professor Nick Maynard please read what he has seen:
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/israel-gaza-war-children-british-doctor-video-b2792054.html

Dozens of medical professionals are giving harrowing testimony of what they have witnessed and are continuing to witness.

You'll blame anyone but the people shooting the guns and dropping the bombs.

I asked a previous poster this with no answer. If you think the BBC, Guardian and Times are all fake, what news do you believe and why do you think it’s believable

It's fair to critique media, but the idea that outlets like the BBC are anti-Israel doesn’t match the evidence. In fact, multiple media studies show that the BBC and others often give more space to Israeli perspectives, frame Israel’s actions as defensive, and downplay Palestinian suffering or context.

People protesting are responding to real, documented human suffering—not because they’ve been manipulated, but because they care: they can see what years of oppression - apartheid has done.

Oversimplifying this as media-fueled hate is a distraction tactic. The world knows what is happening. The world also knows nothing can be done to stop it due to the US and UK giving this fascist Israeli government carte blanche to do whatever. Have you not heard members of the Israeli government talk. Have you not heard and read testimonies from international doctors. Have you not heard what many international organisations are saying.

These are all liars I suppose.

If this current Israeli government had any decency they would simply let the international media into Gaza to report what we all know is happening.

Well, at least you are recognising that the Palestinians are being starved and tortured by Israel. It seems denial is strong amongst Israel's supporters.

I think support for Israel would evaporate overnight if Gaza released the hostages, and definitely if they surrendered Hamas but (Israel) then didn’t stop its military offensive. Rarely has a suffering party had such a means to end its own suffering, but choose not to. Yes, the poor children, but those kids have dads, brothers, uncles who either weren’t considering the consequences or didn’t care when they perpetrated Oct 7th; parents awash with ‘River to the Sea’ doctrine, celebrating dead children as ‘martyrs’, who have not ceased shelling Israel from the day of Gaza’s creation. Once again, Gaza provided a perfect opportunity for Israel to stamp this ‘irritant’ out.

Given the provocation and the means to retaliate, every one of us would have done the same.

And the neighbours? Nothing to see here. Whatever we think, many see Israel as doing the local ‘dirty work’. They also appear not to care about starving children. And have seen the arch disrupter in the area, Iran, subsequently humbled. Remember, this kicked off because Iran needed to destabilise the growing cooperation between Saudi, the UAE and Israel. And found willing proxies in these children’s parents.

Hamas, well fed in their tunnels and Doha, still control the narrative within Gaza, Israel on the border.

It is clear that much of the world while saddened by unwise choices countries make, paid for by their own kids, know that the only way this ends is Gaza recognising Israel’s right to exist, (which would also created stronger international condemnation of illegal West Bank settlements), and ceases proxying for bad faith actors. Me weeping over (sometimes) AI generated images or waving flags on Western European streets does not achieve that.

I save my despair for the desperate mothers of Sudan who really have no way out for themselves and children.

So you’re saying Gazans brought a genocide on themselves

OK, if you don't trust the Guardian, the Times, the Daily Express, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Sky News who have all reported on the starving and malnourished babies and children in Gaza, which news sources do you trust?

Framing Gaza’s suffering as solely due to “refusing to surrender Hamas” ignores reality. Israel’s campaign didn’t begin in a vacuum — Gaza has been under a blockade since 2007, long before October 7. Read about the Nakbah. Read about the fact that so many Palestinians have no right to return to their land. UN bodies and human rights groups have said the occupation, blockade, and repeated military assaults as central drivers of instability. Even if Hamas surrendered tomorrow, there’s little evidence this Israeli government — fascist ultra-right group of people — would lift the siege or pursue peace. Senior ministers have openly opposed a two-state solution and have called for permanent displacement of Palestinians. It’s there in black and white for you to read or look up and watch and hear.
The government has also dragged its feet on hostage negotiations, prioritising military goals and political survival over their safe return. Some hostages’ families in Israel have even accused Netanyahu of sacrificing them to prolong the war. Again - it’s there in black and white for you to read or look up and watch and hear.
Blaming Gaza’s entire population — half of whom are children — for the actions of an authoritarian group they cannot vote out is not only unjust, it violates international law against collective punishment.
Yes, regional actors like Iran play a role. But that doesn’t erase Palestinian suffering or justify a policy of endless siege. Reducing civilians to “proxies” dehumanises them — just as it would be wrong to dehumanise Israeli victims of Hamas.
People are on the right side of history when they demand justice, safety, and dignity for all — including Palestinians who’ve lived for decades without it.

Your despair is finite is it, limited by the context the children who have no choice find themselves in.

It is a disgrace. Netanyahu need to face the international criminal court. If he hasn't committed the war crimes of which is accused he would have nothing to fear.

If Israel are letting food in, why is the UN pleading for them to let food in? This information (which comes from an independent source not one of the sides in the conflict) was also ‘all over the media’ so I’m unsure why you’re not taking it into account and calling people who have read and repeat that information ‘plain stupid’.

The russia/ukraine comparison is weak at best. Russia doesn’t control all of Ukraine borders and Ukraine have received support from the international community in various ways so innocent people are protected.

It is worrying that you show anger towards people showing empathy and compassion on here for starving children. I think people are rightly horrified by a man made famine and are allowed to feel upset by this following the images shared on tv and in the papers. Of course, Hamas have played a significant role in getting to this point but Israel are not innocent and have also played a significant role in the Gaza situation. You cannot commit war crimes and be the ‘good guys’. Israel’s actions (the government and military) mean a smear campaign isn’t necessary - they’ve created their own reputation by acting without humanity.

One could have a more reasonable conversation with the supporters of Israel if they expressed a little more humility. If they acknowledged that the creation of the state of Israel involved a gross injustice to the Palestinians that has never been remedied, that every "solution" proffered has been some version of "suck it up", that the state is a creation of Western guilt and settler-colonialism rather than any legitimate self-determination, and that recognition of those obvious points needs to precede any recognition of a "right" to exist (within pre-1967 borders), we might get somewhere. But unfortunately they are stuck in the same infantile nationalism and victim mentality that now dominates Israeli politics.

There are a number of posters who turn up to every post on this subject to justify or deny what the Israeli government are doing to Palestinian children. These posters are also inclined to report people who do not agree with them to Mumsnet. Their reality is always different from most of the world wide news outlets. In fact, it is a very narrow reality echoing the current Israeli government. They are however dogmatic and sneering. I hope for them (if they are not trolls) that they never get to view this level of suffering objectively because they will then have to confront what they backed .
Someone reports most of my posts so I cannot see this staying up for long .