Experts describe the slow and agonizing symptoms of starvation, as Melania joins President Trump to decry the plight of Gaza children

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Donald Trump broke ranks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, rejecting his claim that 'there is no starvation in Gaza '.
Trump, who has been a strong backer of Israel in its war with Hamas, seems to have changed his stance after images of starving children in the embattled area gripped First Lady Melania Trump.
'She thinks it's terrible,' Trump said on board Air Force One on Tuesday. 'She sees the same pictures that you see. And that we all see. And I think everybody – unless they're pretty cold-hearted or, worse than that, nuts.
And during a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, Trump said of the images showing malnourished kids in the territory, their limbs emaciated and ribs protruding: '...Those children look very hungry.'
'Some of those kids are – that's real starvation stuff. I see it and you can't fake that.'
While many of us may recognize extreme malnutrition when we see it, few are familiar with how it feels.
Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene became the first Republican in Congress to describe the situation in Gaza as a 'genocide,' reflecting the growing skepticism on the right about Israel's conduct of the war.
Daily Mail spoke with medical experts and humanitarian aid workers about the slow and agonizing effects, both physical and psychological, of prolonged food deprivation.
All said it starts out the same as for any of us who've skipped meals or fasted – with cravings for food, stomach growls and intense hunger pangs that can feel like cramps.
After a few days, the body begins to feed off glycogen, a carbohydrate stored in the liver.
But those supplies are limited, so the body then starts breaking down fat for energy. It can take weeks or longer for fat reserves to be depleted.
Once they are, the body begins consuming muscle tissue. This phase leads to weight loss and weakness that can perpetuate malnutrition even further. A severe drop in strength makes it difficult to stand up, let alone search for or prepare food.
As aid groups told us, the Palestinians we see on the news trekking miles with kitchen pots in hand to beg for food at aid distribution sites or chasing after bags of flour airdropped into Gaza are those who still have the strength to do so.
People experiencing more advanced stages of extreme malnutrition are likely confined at home or in tents or makeshift shelters, where most of the estimated 90 percent of Gazans who've been displaced by the war have been living.
Their circumstances have become even more dire due to a lack of clean water and the recent extreme temperatures above 90 degrees with 70 percent humidity.
As the body breaks down the protein in muscles, cells and organs start to malfunction.
Aid groups on the ground told Daily Mail that those who haven't hit the stage of hunger where they can no longer walk are often seeing trekking for miles with kitchen pots in hand to beg for food at aid distribution sites
The heart slows, breathing becomes difficult, and the immune system loses its ability to fight off viruses and bacteria, which are prevalent in disaster areas that lack basic water and sanitation systems.
Even though a person in this stage of starvation may feel hunger, they typically can't eat or digest enough food to recover without the kinds of slow, steady medical interventions that generally are no longer available in Gaza.
The World Health Organization estimates that at least 94 percent of hospitals there have been damaged or destroyed.
Terminal starvation usually causes nausea and vomiting, extreme weakness and fatigue. It makes moving nearly impossible, requiring victims to be carried from place to place and frequently moved into different positions to avoid bed sores.
Their bodies physically shrink under these conditions, causing their cheeks to hollow, their hair and skin to lose color and their pulse and blood pressure to drop.
Starving children often experience 'kwashiorkor,' a severe protein deficiency causing fluid retention and swelling in their feet, ankles and bellies. In babies and toddlers, starvation hampers brain development.
And Israel has been blocking shipments of baby formula to the territory.
'Humanity is gone... today we begin surviving on water and salt,' Hasan Essam, who describes himself as a programmer and accountant from the northern Gaza Strip, posted on X last Thursday, July 24.
Daily Mail could not independently verify his identity.
Humanitarian groups blame Israel for blocking food and medical aid from entering Gaza and for allowing its forces to open fire on desperate civilians gathered at aid distribution points – while relief shipments sit idle inside Israel
The United Nations' World Food Program says a third of Gaza's population of about 2 million have been going for days without eating as hundreds of thousands of people there live in 'famine-like conditions'
'The greatest achievement in Gaza today is to live another day,' Essam posted on Saturday. 'I know nobody cares about us, I know we're just a post and it's going to end but I'm really hungry, I'm saying we're hungry.'
Essam posted again on Monday to say, 'My body is starting to shrink, and I feel dizzy, tired, and extremely hungry. I only eat one meal a day, or maybe nothing at all. I'm really hungry.'
Along with physically breaking down the body, extreme malnutrition also breaks down the mind and spirit.
Starving people become obsessed with food to the point of total distraction, and their concentration and problem-solving abilities wane. They usually experience mood swings, including intense irritability and even bouts of rage, even toward loved ones who are trying to care for them.
Aid workers say the horror of starvation can be compounded by fury among family members who are normally close.
'A lack of food can turn even the most loving people into animals. That's a natural human reaction,' said a Canadian doctor who has worked among starving populations for the Swiss-based Médecins Sans Frontières, an international group providing medical care in war zones and sites of natural disasters.
As physical exhaustion sets in, so, too, do depression, apathy, isolation and withdrawal. Many starving people spend their last days or weeks with altered perception – an almost delirious state that removes them from the reality of their situations.
Without any food, humans usually die within two months, depending on their age, size and overall health before starvation sets in. With occasional scraps to eat, the agonizing process drags on longer.
Hasan Essam, who describes himself as a programmer and accountant from the northern Gaza Strip, is one of the many Palestinians describing the mass hunger on X, writing that his 'body is slowly falling apart from malnutrition'
Rahil Mohammed Rasras, a 32-year-old Palestinian woman suffering from severe malnutrition, succumbed to her hunger and lack of medical access since the majority of hospitals in the area have been destroyed, passing away on July 21
Humanitarian aid groups blame Israel for blocking shipments of food aid and medical care from Gaza and for allowing its army to shoot into crowds of desperate civilians seeking food at aid distribution centers.
The Israel Defense Forces killed at least 32 aid seekers on Tuesday.
Israel, in turn, blames Hamas for not allowing food supplies to be distributed within the territory.
'Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,' Netanyahu said on Sunday.
'What is interdicting the supply of humanitarian aid is one force – Hamas. Again, the reverse of the truth. Hamas robs, steals this humanitarian aid and then accuses Israel of not supplying it,' he continued.
Aid groups this week are warning of an inflection point in Gaza where the window to prevent mass death is rapidly narrowing.
The International Rescue Committee reported Tuesday that 'famine thresholds have now been surpassed in Gaza City and that the worst-case scenario is unfolding across much of the Gaza Strip.'
'In the coming days, thousands of Gaza's children will either be rescued or allowed to die,' said the IRC's president.
The Israel Defense Forces killed at least 32 Palestinians seeking food at aid drops on Tuesday. But Israel has blamed Hamas for not allowing food supplies to be distributed within the territory
The United Nations' World Food Program says a third of Gaza's population of about 2 million have been going for days without eating as hundreds of thousands of people there live in 'famine-like conditions.'
The World Health Organization said there has been a 'marked spike' in starvation-related deaths recently, totaling 63 in July, including 25 children.
Trump generally has been uncritical of Israel's handling of its war on Hamas, which started after the Gaza-based Palestinian terror group and its allies launched a surprise attack on Southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
Partly at the urging of First Lady Melania Trump, the President said Monday that the US will become 'more involved' in fighting starvation by setting up food centers in Gaza, where the number of people killed since the war began surpassed 60,000 this week, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
That office says the total number of deaths from famine and malnutrition over the last 22 months is 147, including at least 88 children.
Human-made famines such as those in Gaza and in Sudan where civil war is having a devastating effect are considered violations of international humanitarian law.
British Prime Minister Starmer announced Tuesday that the UK will join France in recognizing Palestine as an independent state in September unless Israel takes 'substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza,' including a ceasefire and a commitment to a long-term peace process.