The Children Starve First

[Municipal]

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.

Hamas- a violent terrorist death cult.

Israel- a whole nation of people of many ethnicities currently under an abhorrent right wing administration.

But you hate Israel more.

Got it.

Are you saying that Palestinians don’t exist as a people separate to Hamas?

Because I’m not sure those babies dying in their incubators are aware they’re part of a “death cult”

Of course not. That would be silly. There's currently many brave Palestinians protesting against Hamas.

Because theyre not, obviously.

But that's how it works on these threads isn't it?
Lots of people here are accused of things they've never said, accused of being heartless and inhuman and a thousand other pithy little insults. One pro gazan poster wanted any voices contrary to their narrative silenced.
Another had such in depth knowledge of the issue she thought Gaza was bordered by Syria and Lebanon.
You tried to draw an analogy between the ira & hamas - there is no comparison.

Whatever our political opinions, surely no one here thinks children should be starved as a tactic of war, this is a war crime.

Palestinians are people too. Just people governed by an abhorrent terrorist organisation.

i don’t hate Israeli people either. I don’t think that what’s people mean when they are critical of Israeli military strategy in Gaza. I hate the US administration at the moment. I don’t hate Americans; that would be silly really, wouldn’t it? We can all divide our dislike of governments from our feelings of the ordinary civilian’s in the country.

But at the end of the day, on a parenting site in particular: I think we can all agree that no child should be starved to death.

I must have missed the post where someone suggested that starving children was marvellous. I have seen a lot of questioning the information coming from hamas, or Israel and some factual corrections.

I’m just asking do you agree with children being starved?

or is your argument based on a belief that they are not being starved?

That is the sub narrative on here though isn’t it. Anyone who questions or tries to correct the anti Israel propaganda, dehumanises Palestinians, wants BABIES to starve and die, and is of course inhumane, racist and devoid of all empathy themselves.

They just don’t want to hear it. They want an Israel hate echo chamber just for themselves and they had one for a long time going by previous threads.

I didn't - again. I tried to draw an analogy between the actions of the UK and Israel in their responses to terrorism.
And - please don't accuse me or misquote me in error thanks - many people would view the IRA and Hamas pretty similarly, especially those who lived through the Troubles.
Israel is not unique in suffering terrorism. But it's response since October 7th has been very unique.

If only Isreal would let in independent journalists then we wouldn’t need to rely on civilian accounts that you don’t want us to believe. It seems a double standard though? Why can’t we trust civilian Palestinian accounts when Israeli accounts of their experiences must not be questioned (righty so)?

Would you trust doctors’ accounts?
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/let-the-children-eat-israel-is-starving-gaza-to-death-doctors-and-experts-warn_uk_68249ee6e4b07f898ef42655/

You can’t let us not believe what we see and read if Isreal doesn’t let in journalists. Wouldn’t it help your cause - if you believe it’s us who live in an echo chamber - if journalists could have unfettered access to Gaza?

@Mylegishangingoff care to share what you find funny about Hamas, abhorrent Israeli policies, or hating Israel?

Can't see anything funny about any of that given where it's all bought us but interested to hear what bit made you laugh?

It isn’t anti-Israel (or it shouldn’t be) to say that the actions of their current administration are abhorrent. I certainly don’t hate Israel or Israelis and understand completely why they would want justice after 07 Oct. But what we’re seeing now simply cannot be called justice. it’s so far in excess of acceptable. The current regime is using 07 Oct as an excuse to carry out something akin to genocide and it should be called out. Netanyahu and his team are war criminals, that doesn’t negate the fact there was a need for justice after 07 Oct and its doesn’t mean that all Israeli’s are complicit.

The simplicity of your post. The fact that you have clearly missed that when posters here mention Israel in this context they are talking about the disgusting government(and it was very obvious from their post that they were talking about the government) that are current starving 2million plus people of medical care and food and have been for a long time. The government who are the biggest killers of children on the planet. The government who have been open about their desire to 'concentrate' people into small areas and then 'cleanse' them. Like that poster said why wouldn't people hate them?

Because Israel is a nation of people. Not the policies or government.

The previous poster said ' I hate Israel '.

Would it be ok for me to say ' I hate Palestine '?

Say what you like. Loads of posters here are anti Palestine and anti the Palestinian people. Like I said though it was extremely clear from her post that she was speaking of the government currently openly engaged in ethnically cleansing.

7/10 was unique. 9/11 was unique.
The UK has experienced nothing on that scale or barbarity. (even considering 7/7 and Ariana Grande - and one of those was home-grown inflamed by rhetoric- the government would have had to attack northern England, some might say it does in it's own way)

I think there is propaganda on both sides. What we do know is the IDF lie. They lied about killing the paramedics, they tried to hide the evidence and they said it was lies and then the video was found. I can't trust what the IDF say and that's on them not me

They also lied about not being in the area when little 6yo Hind was shot dead after being trapped in a car with her dead relatives pleading for help for hours. Satellites imagery showed 3 tanks with their guns pointing at her car.

And a huge liar remember is Netanyahu.

I found an extraordinary fact yesterday which was not only that Netanyahu purposely promoted Hamas for years in order to split Gaza from the Palestinian authority in the West Bank so that there could not be a Palestinian state, ( a fact widely written about after Oct 7)

but also - and most particularly - he promoted Hamas because they had been extremists linked to terrorism from the outset, because this would suit his purpose as it would ensure Palestine could never be recognised as a state.

The slithery Netanyahu and his supporters worked for years to prevent a two state solution.

This is an article explaining the history of this strategy. ( My bolding)
www.analystnews.org/posts/how-israel-helped-prop-up-hamas-for-decades
Excerpt. (For links see the full article.)

In a 2019 Likud party meeting, Netanyahu gloated to his compatriots: “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy — to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

And an Israeli Ministry of Intelligence document published by +972 magazine on Oct. 30 makes it even more explicit. In it, officials refer to the option of the Palestinian Authority taking control of Gaza as the worst possible outcome — because it would remove “one of the central obstacles preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Indeed, Netanyahu has been intent on keeping the Palestinians divided under two ruling groups: the diplomatically successful Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the militant Hamas in Gaza. (The Palestinian Authority, led by the vestiges of the PLO, was created as an interim self-governing body meant to pave the way for an independent Palestinian state, but that has not happened.)

So long as these two groups are divided, Israel has cover to avoid negotiating with the Palestinian Authority on the grounds that the group doesn’t represent all Palestinians.

Hamas has become a convenient foe for Israel, in contrast with the diplomatic success of the Palestinian Authority. In a 2015 interview, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich explained that Hamas’s militancy, and therefore its illegitimacy on the world stage, was a boon for his government’s political strategy.

^“The Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset,” Smotrich said.
“It’s a terrorist organization, no one will recognize it, no one will give it status at the [International Criminal Court], no one will let it put forth a resolution at the U.N. Security Council.”^

Not new info. on this board, another piece of the jigsaw. I not that your wording is partial and you only mention one of the sources.

It would be interesting to compare the conversations going on among the hamas and Palestinian authority echelons in the interests of the whole picture.