‘This year is a nightmare’: Gaza’s children face starvation amid dire conditions

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• John Yang:

  It was three months ago today that Hamas attacks southern Israel killing some 1200 people and kidnapping about 240 more. Ever since, Israel is bombarded Gaza with the goal of eliminating Hamas. The Hamas run Gaza health ministry puts the Gaza death toll at nearly 23,000.

  And the United Nations says that as many as 40 percent of the casualties are children, about half the Gaza strips population is younger than 18. And as a new year begins, many of them have a simple wish.

  Layan Harara, Gazan resident (through translator): In 2024 I wish not to die. There is no bathroom, no food and no drinking water. Our childhood is gone.

  Layan Abu Kuwaik, Gazan resident (through translator): This year is a nightmare for every child in Gaza for every man and woman for every elderly man and woman in Gaza.

• John Yang:

  Earlier I spoke with Jason Lee, the country director for the Occupied Territories for Save the Children. He was recently in Gaza.

  Jason Lee, Country Director, Save the Children: The situation in Gaza keeps deteriorating children, the families that are forced to flee their homes, you've got 1.9 million people. That's 85 percent of the population that have basically become homeless.

  I was in Rafah. And within three days, I saw the sheer number of civilians that fled south, putting up tents wherever they could, on the side of the roads next to the hospitals. Again, there's a lack of food, there's lack of water, there's absolutely no primary health care, no health facilities are working. This is the situation like that children and cars are facing right now. And every single day, it gets worse and worse.

• John Yang:

  You see no primary health care facilities, what happens to children or to any Gazan, who may be injured in the fighting or injured in the effort to get away from the fighting.

• Jason Lee:

  Seven out of 10 of the civilians that have been killed and injured has been a woman or a child. And these children have nowhere to go. The hospitals completely full. They don't have enough supplies. There's not enough health care workers.

  So the doctors, the nurses, they're performing examinations in corridors. The rooms are completely filled, overcrowded beyond belief. Patients are sleeping on the floor, floors that are covered with blood. And the damage that sold around again, these hospitals do not have the fuel to keep running. They don't have bandages, they don't have medicines.

  It is now unthinkable where majority of hospitals in Gaza are no longer functioning. Patients, children cannot go anywhere to get treatment for the injuries that they're sustaining.

• John Yang:

  What is the situation? How dire is the situation about getting food into Gaza?

• Jason Lee:

  The latest report on the food security indicates again, the high levels of food insecurity throughout all of Gaza. 50 percent of the population in Gaza, that's 1.1 million people at risk of starvation. Starvation cannot be used as a weapon of war. And we see this right now.

  Throughout all of the Gaza Strip, food availability is decreasing families are coping or resorting to negative coping mechanisms. My team report that in the north of Gaza in Jabalya, civilians have started taking two hunting animals in the street just to find a meal.

• John Yang:

  I want to make sure I understand what you're saying earlier you said that starvation cannot be used as a weapon of war. Are you saying that you think Israel is deliberately doing this?

• Jason Lee:

  What I can say and what I saw in Gaza is that there is not enough supplies coming in. We do not have free access throughout all of Gaza. When I was in Gaza for three successive days, all of our movement to the North was denied. We were not allowed to take any convoys of aid to the Northern part of Gaza. And of course, the increased fighting does not allow for humanitarians to work.

• John Yang:

  The Israeli military says they do work to try and minimize civilian casualties. And they blame Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying that they operate in these very densely packed civilian areas. What do you say to that?

• Jason Lee:

  Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. It has 2.3 million people living in an area that is 365 square kilometers. And again, half of them the population of Gaza are children.

  Now the forcible transfer or concentration of civilians into areas that cannot post them to satisfy military objectives is not trying to minimize civilian deaths. It is not protecting civilians, forcing civilians to move when there is still active fighting. Those areas cannot sustain life. It is not trying to protect civilians, when you're forcing them to move into areas that cannot keep them alive.

• John Yang:

  Israel with the support and backing of the United States is reluctant or is resistant to the idea of humanitarian ceasefire. They do talk about brief pauses to allow humanitarian aid in is that enough?

• Jason Lee:

  The ceasefire a definitive and immediate ceasefire is the only way to protect civilians first and foremost, because it actually stops civilians from being continually killed and injured. It allows humanitarians to work. Pauses do not allow us to systematically bring the supplies and distribute them throughout all of Gaza Strip. We do not have enough personnel in Gaza to actually mount an effective and principled humanitarian action. Humanitarian pauses do not do enough. They do not protect civilians. They do not allow humanitarians to deliver assistance wherever civilians are throughout all of the Gaza Strip.

• John Yang:

  Jason, are there any firsthand experiences you had while you were in Gaza that you could you could tell us about?

• Jason Lee:

  When I was in Gaza, there was this horrific and horrible instance of a four-year-old girl that turned up to why the Gaza alone. We have no idea who she is, how she got to where to Gaza, where she came from. Thankfully, were able to find this four year old girl take her to medical care and shoot this young child was in such a state of catatonic shock. Her skin was cold and clammy. We have no idea when she last ate. And she wasn't speaking, she was non responsive.

  We managed to get her some food, give her some juice, give some high protein biscuits and have a doctor check her out. But I still don't know if this child has regained speech. We have no idea who she is. If she's got any family left.

  The U.N. have estimated just in the U.N. shelters alone and this is a rough indication that for 2,000 children without parents without family. We have not been able to look into in the shelters, the government shelters. We've not been able to look in the camps and the tents that are springing up all around Rafah right now. We need to find these children. We need to keep them safe.

• John Yang:

  I understand you also visited a training center at Khan Younis?

• Jason Lee:

  I met this young family that were desperately trying to find milk for this baby. I don't know how old the baby was probably about six months to one year. And unfortunately the mother had died buried under the rubble. And this family were trying to find milk for this baby that hadn't eaten for a day. This is just one story of the thousands and thousands of children that have been impacted by what is happening in Gaza right now.

• John Yang:

  Jason Lee have Save the Children. Thank you very much.

• Jason Lee:

  Thank you.