“We are slowly dying; save us from this tragedy.” These are not the words of a politician or a pundit, but the desperate plea of Jamil Mughari, a 38-year-old mother in central Gaza. Her words are a horrifying window into a crisis that has spiralled beyond conflict into a man-made famine. She speaks of her children, once vibrant, now “just skin and bones.” Her five-year-old daughter weighs a mere 11 kilograms. Jamil herself has lost a third of her body weight. She describes feeling dizzy and falling to the ground, eating only one meal of lentils a day, and being exhausted from the relentless, fruitless search for food.
This is the ugly reality behind the staggering numbers. As the Palestinian death toll surpasses 60,000 and the list of aid workers killed grows to over 1,300, the true tragedy unfolds in the personal stories of slow, agonizing death. The Gaza Health Ministry reports that 169 people, including 93 children, have now died from starvation and malnutrition. These are not casualties of a battlefield; they are victims of a siege, a deliberate campaign of starvation that the world is watching in real-time.
The humiliation of aid
The humanitarian aid that does manage to reach Gaza is often a source of more suffering and humiliation. Desperate crowds, driven by the hunger of their families, flock to distribution centres, only to be met with Israeli fire. The situation is so perilous that these centres, like those run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, can only operate for a few minutes at a time. The head of northern Gaza’s emergency services reports that 80% of his department’s vehicles have been destroyed, leaving the injured without a way to seek help.
Even the aid dropped from planes, a supposedly humanitarian gesture, has become a symbol of the collective dehumanization of the Palestinian people. As one displaced Palestinian, Rana Attiyah, puts it, “We feel like dogs chasing bones after food is dropped from planes. We are humiliated by it.” The aid scatters in the sand, unprotected, and the act of scrambling for it strips people of their dignity. It is a haunting image of a world that offers crumbs while allowing a full-scale famine to rage.
A global shift, a final opportunity
For months, the world’s response has been marked by a sickening silence from powerful nations. But now, a significant shift in the global political landscape offers a shine of hope. In a potentially epoch-making moment, France, the UK, and Canada have announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September. This move, coming from G7 and UN Security Council members, sends an unmistakable message to Israel and its staunchest ally, the United States: the two-state solution is not a negotiation point to be endlessly debated, but the only path to a lasting peace.
While the United States remains opposed, labelling France’s move as ‘reckless’, the tide of international consensus is turning. With 147 of the 193 UN member states already recognizing Palestine, the diplomatic isolation of Washington and Tel Aviv is becoming a tangible reality. The traditional peace process, dominated by American mediation and Israeli preconditions, has failed for decades. This new wave of recognition is not just a reaction to the carnage in Gaza; it is a strategic and moral declaration that the old ways are no longer acceptable.
Another layer of complexity
It is true that diplomatic recognition alone will not solve the complex issues of borders, security, or a unified government. Hamas’s refusal to disarm until a sovereign state is established, as they recently reaffirmed, adds another layer of complexity. However, recognition lays the crucial foundation for a more balanced peace process and strengthens the moral argument for the Palestinian right to self-determination.
At the end
We can continue to watch as Jamil Mughari and her children slowly die, as aid seekers are shot, and as a population is humiliated for a piece of bread. Or we can seize this moment of diplomatic momentum. The decisions by France, the UK, and Canada must not be a final gesture, but a beginning. The international community, and especially the United States, must build on this pressure to force an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and a massive, secure flow of humanitarian aid.
Jamil Mughari’s plea is not just for her family; it is for all of Gaza. It is an appeal to our shared humanity. The world has a moral obligation to act, not with passive observation or symbolic gestures, but with decisive action to save a people from the brink of oblivion.