On a hospital bed in Rafah lies the tiny child’s body. Weak and emaciated. The 12-year-old boy’s name is Yazan al-Kafarna. The war in Gaza took everything from him. A worried mother sits on the edge of the bed. The boy can hardly move anymore. She tells how he has lived with the disease cerebral palsy all his life, and that he was dependent on special food and medication. In humanitarian disasters, such as the one in Gaza, people with chronic illnesses often get hit first, says doctor and professor of medicine, Erik Fosse. The picture shows what Yazan looked like before the war. Photo: Twitter/screenshot from the father’s phone – Yazan’s health was good before the war. He ate and drank. Play and smile, says the mother in a TV interview with Reuters. Recently, the 12-year-old lived on bread scraps. If the family couldn’t find food, he lived on sugar. The mother of Yazan al-Kafarna holds her son’s hand in a hospital in Rafah on the Gaza Strip. Photo: Yasser Qudih / Reuters – The main reason why he only looks like bones is a lack of nutrition, says relative Mohammed al-Kafarna. Fosse said that Yazan undoubtedly died malnourished and dehydrated. He also says that because of the illness he had little muscle and looks particularly thin. To get the son help, the family traveled from the northernmost city in Gaza to the southernmost. Yazan’s mother says that they come from Beit Hanoun, in the north of Gaza. The escape route first went to the Jabalia refugee camp. Further they fled to Al-Nuseirat -Finally they reached Rafah. He got no further than the hospital bed inside al-Najjar hospital in Rafah. Here, civilians wait to be allowed to cross the border. With his mother and father at his bedside, Yazan died on Monday. The autopsy report for Yazan is not available. – If this continues, the healthy children will also end up like him, says Fosse. A man-made famine disaster Recently, the UN’s leading expert on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, came up with one of the strongest accusations against Israel to date. He stated that “Israel has deliberately starved the Palestinian people in Gaza since October 8”. The Guardian has asked Israel to respond to the designation of Fakhri, but they have not done so. Israel is at war against the militant group Hamas, after the terrorist attack on 7 October in which just under 1,200 people were killed. 2.2 million people in Gaza are now categorized as in food crisis or worse, according to the UN organization in Gaza. – Now it targets civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys, Fakhri told The Guardian. One in six children in northern Gaza under the age of two is the victim of acute malnutrition, according to the UN’s emergency aid office OCHA. – Now when children start dying of starvation, the alarm should go off. If not now, when is the time to stop, asks Jens Lærke, spokesperson from the UN Office for Emergency Relief (OCHA). At least 15 children have died of malnutrition and dehydration in one of the hospitals in Gaza, according to the health authorities in Gaza. Riyad H. Mansour with a prayer at the UN. According to the Global Nutrition Cluster, led by UNICEF, 90 percent of children aged 6–23 months, pregnant women and lactating women in Gaza suffer from severe food shortages. – That face is a sign of something that has not been fed. The UN has long warned against famine in Gaza. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on Monday that they had inspected two hospitals in the Gaza Strip, al-Awda and Kamal Adwan. Other independent aid workers have also done the same. The WHO saw serious cases of malnutrition, children dying from malnutrition and a lack of medical equipment. – Children who have survived the bombs may not survive a famine, writes Ghebreyesus on X. Erik Fosse got to see the picture of Yazan when he was alive and after he was dead. Photo: Eirin Tjoflot / news Erik Fosse, one of the NORWAC doctors, recently worked at the European hospital in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip. He has seen the picture of Yazan both alive and after he was dead. – That face there. It is a sign of someone who has not had enough food. He says that several adults in Gaza have started to get such features. He himself lost seven kilos when he was down there. He nevertheless points out that children are particularly vulnerable. – No child in Gaza gets enough food or drink anymore. Malnourished children in a hospital in Rafah on the Gaza Strip. Photo: Mohammed Salem / Reuters He emphasizes that the reason why the boy’s body looks particularly emaciated is largely due to the disease. – He probably had particularly few muscles. I don’t think he has used his arms or legs to any particular extent. That’s why this looks so dramatic. Minimal emergency aid There is a great lack of emergency aid in Gaza. The UN has long blamed Israel for stopping emergency aid from reaching the people in Gaza. UN data show that the amount of emergency aid, including fuel, vital medicine and food, has fallen since 7 October. Around 500 lorry loads were brought in every day. The graph below shows the number of truck loads that have entered Gaza from 7 October to 29 February, divided into periods of six days. The red line shows how many lorry loads were dropped in before the war. In recent weeks, the pressure on Israel has increased, especially after the UN court opened a genocide case against the country. The amount of emergency aid has since increased somewhat, but is still far from normal. Lack of fuel has also led to several hospitals reducing or stopping operations. Palestinian children wait to have food prepared by a charity kitchen amid a shortage of food supplies. Photo: Mohammed Salem / Reuters According to the UN’s emergency aid office OCHA, only 22.5 percent of the primary health facilities in the Gaza Strip are functional. Stopping emergency aid When the war started, Israel was clear that they stopped food and drink from entering Gaza. They later moderated such statements. – Our war is against Hamas, and not the population of Gaza, said Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli military recently. Satellite image shows emergency aid slipping in through the Rafah border crossing in February. Photo: Maxar Technologies / AP The Israeli army (IDF) claims to have dropped in around 14,000 truckloads of supplies since 7 October. Israel’s most important ally, the United States, has increased the pressure to get more emergency aid to Gaza. On Tuesday, US Vice President Kamela Harris met Israeli Minister Benny Gantz, where they discussed the need for emergency aid in Gaza. news has been in contact with the IDF and asked them what they are doing to ensure emergency aid for the population in Gaza, and asked questions about the situation of Yazan. They say he died of the disease.
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Here lies 12-year-old Yazan emaciated in a hospital in Gaza – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
