💔 These Three Children Were Just Starved to Death Today in Gaza

Ro’a. Muhammad. Judy. These children were born healthy — but Israel and the United States made sure they had nothing to eat.

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🕯️ Three More Children. Starved. On Purpose.

Today, I want to tell you the stories of three Palestinian children who were just starved to death in Gaza. Our government backs this.

They didn’t die because of drought. Or earthquake. Or natural disaster.

They were intentionally starved under a U.S.-Israeli blockade that has made food, water, and baby formula almost impossible to access.

They were all born healthy.

And now they are dead — in what the UN, international experts, and humanitarian leaders have already declared is a genocide.

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🧕🏽 Ro’a Ameen Mashi (2½ years old)

📍 Nasser Hospital, Gaza

Ro’a had no pre-existing health conditions - not that it matters or that I care, but Israel and America seem to be obsessed with this detail. To me, if someone has pre-existing conditions that means you should go OUT OF YOUR WAY to make sure they have food - not that they are somehow less deserving to live.

She was a perfectly healthy toddler until the Israeli government, backed by full U.S. political and military support, cut off nearly all access to food and supplies in Gaza. She lost more than 50% of her body weight. Her body gave up. Her organs failed.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital, said:

“She simply died because there was no food for her to eat.”

Ro’a was one of four people reported dead from starvation in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry — bringing the total famine death toll to 197, including 96 children.

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👶🏽 Muhammad Zakaria Asfour (1 year, 4 months old)

📍 Khan Younis, Gaza Strip

Muhammad was a baby. Just barely beginning life.

He died this morning because there was no milk. No baby food. Nothing to nourish his growing body. His parents tried everything. But the siege leaves no options. No borders. No supplies. No aid.

The Health Ministry confirmed he was one of the four starvation deaths reported today.

He was 16 months old.

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🍼 Judy al-Aroor (6 months old)

📍 Gaza Strip

Poet Mosab Abu Toha, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, shared Judy’s story publicly today. His words must be heard in full:

“This is Judy al-Aroor, a 6-month-old baby who died today from severe malnutrition.
Most babies are born healthy, but their lives are cut short not by illness, but by deliberate deprivation.

Israel has been blocking every means of survival. Many mothers, weakened by hunger and trauma, cannot breastfeed. At the same time, Israel continues to restrict the entry of baby formula and other essential nutritional supplies, leaving infants like Judy with nothing to live on.

The photo at the bottom shows Judy just days before she died. Judy was still fighting to survive.”

Six months old. A baby. Cut off from every lifeline.

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⚖️ This Is a Genocide. This Is a Crime.

We are past the point of debate.

This is the deliberate starvation of children. This is the targeting of civilians through blockades, bombings, and aid manipulation. This is what the world said it would never allow again.

The legal term is genocide by starvation — a crime under international humanitarian law, customary law, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

It is happening now. Today.
And these children are its victims.

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✊🏽 Say Their Names. Share Their Stories.

I know it’s heavy. It’s too heavy. But we must say their names. We must not allow their lives — and their deaths — to pass unseen.

Ro’a. Muhammad. Judy.

Three more in a long list of children killed by siege, silence, and indifference.

Do not let them be numbers.
Do not let them be forgotten.

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📣 If you want to support this kind of work — rooted in truth, rage, and resistance — join us. 👉🏽 thenorthstar.com/subscribe

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Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun King

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