Boy whose pictures showed reality of Gaza famine dies under Israeli siege

A 10-year-old Palestinian child whose pictures highlighted the reality of famine and malnutrition caused by Israel's ongoing crippling siege on Gaza has died.

"I lost my child today after 10 days at the hospital due to malnutrition," the mother of Yazan al Kafarneh told Anadolu Agency, tears running down her cheeks.

"My son's health rapidly deteriorated and he lost weight until he became a skeleton," she said, sitting on the ground at Yousef Al Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza.

According to his family, Yazan reached a point where he needed specific food and nutrients to keep him alive after losing so much of his body weight.

His mother never imagined that she would see her child starving to death in her arms.

"My son is now in heaven, but I never imagined that we would reach this stage," said the mother, whose family was displaced from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza to Rafah in the south.

When Israel ordered the one million residents of northern Gaza to move south, human rights groups warned that this, along with a crippling blockade, would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.

"My message to the world is to look at Gaza's children and see how their lives have changed," the boy's mother implored.

'We hope this war ends soon'

Israel has killed more than 30,500 Palestinians and wounded nearly 72,000 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities since October 7. Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

Starving children Images and videos of Yazan al Kafarneh showed the boy lying on a hospital bed with sunken cheeks.

In one video, his father shows a photo of his son looking healthy from before Israel launched its war.

"Today, I lost my son due to lack of food," his father told Anadolu.

The Palestinian father appealed to the World Health Organization to shed light on Palestinian children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza amid unabated Israeli attacks.

"We hope this war ends soon to let our children eat food and lead a healthy life," he added.

At least 16 children have died from dehydration and malnutrition in northern Gaza amid Israel’s siege on the area, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Case becoming cause celebre

Dr Jabir Al Shaar, head of the paediatric department at Abu Yousef Al Najar Hospital in Rafah, where the boy was treated until he was transferred to Al Awda, said Yazan had cerebral palsy and had been dependent upon a special diet such as blended fruit and milk, not available in Gaza anymore.

The doctor attributed the boy's death to severe malnutrition.

The case was already becoming a cause celebre, being cited at a meeting of the UN General Assembly by Palestinian envoy Riyad al Mansour.

The Israeli war has pushed 85 percent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.