(July 21, 2025)

I have an idea of what runs through a person’s mind as they are about to be killed in an air strike. Most people in Gaza do. We have had those thoughts so often that they are embedded in our nervous system; they will never fully leave, even decades after this genocide ends.

I also understand the type of thoughts that consume people dying due to the lack of medical care. I lived that moment with someone very close to me. I looked into their eyes as they took their final breaths. I could almost hear their thoughts.

But starvation is different. I picture someone lying on a bed, dying in total silence – a silence so powerful it can kill bones, muscles, flesh and blood. A silence stronger than the 125,000 tonnes of explosives that have been dropped on Gaza over the past 21 months. A silence that keeps borders sealed and food blocked from entry.

What do they feel, knowing that they have survived thousands of air strikes, artillery shells, field executions, epidemics and the collapse of the health system, only to die because they could not get the bare minimum calories a human needs to stay alive?

Do they feel betrayed by humanity?