On a hospital bed inside Friends of the Patient Hospital in Gaza City, nine-year-old Mariam lies motionless. Her frail body, weighing just 10 kilograms, tells the silent story of a child consumed by hunger and war.For nearly two years, Mariam has battled severe malnutrition brought on by Israel's blockade and the prevention of vital humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. In March, restrictions tightened further with the closure of border crossings, cutting off supplies and accelerating the spread of famine. The consequences, doctors warn, have reached "catastrophic" levels.Mariam's mother, Madalia, 33, sits quietly beside her daughter, gently stroking her hair. She recalls a very different image of Mariam before the war—healthy, active, and weighing 25 kilograms. "She never suffered from any illness," her mother says. "But today, her weight has fallen to 10 kilograms."Her mom mentioned how Mariam used to love eggs and meat that are not found in Gaza nowadays. The family now lives in a displacement camp in northern Gaza after fleeing their home, like thousands of others. There, they struggle to survive without consistent access to food, medicine, or clean water.As Mariam lies on her hospital bed, her body weakened by starvation, her story underscores the devastating impact of war and blockade on Gaza's youngest and most vulnerable.
Mariam has been featured in The Telegraph , Al Jazeera and other media.
UNICEF also features Mariam - and her healthy looking mother - in promotional videos across different social media.
The Al Jazeera video shows a partial glimpse of Mariam's younger brother, who does not appear to be suffering from malnutrition.
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I fond another interview with the mother on X that seems to contradict everything being said by WFP, UNICEF and the media.
First of all, she says that Maryam lost a shocking amount of weight in only the previous week - as opposed to WFP that says she's been having medical issues since the beginning of the war.
Then the mother says:
I suspect that Mariam has another problem besides malnutrition, because I struggled with Mariam in every hospital with all the doctors from the south to the north. I followed up with all of them but they didn't make any report that diagnoses Mariam's condition. I suspect that my daughter has a condition that no one understands here in Gaza. I appeal to the concerned authorities, anyone who can help me with Mariam. I am calling for travel.
Here's the real tragedy. Madalia Dawas wants to save her daughter Mariam from an undiagnosed illness. She reasonably thinks that if she does a public relations campaign, the chances that Mariam will be able to leave Gaza for treatment abroad increases, as hundreds of other children have managed to do.
But the World Food Programme and UNICEF look at Mariam not as a child who needs medical attention, but as a fundraising bonanza, whose emaciated body can symbolize famine and starvation. Their videos and photo captions do not mention Madalia's desire to find a diagnosis and treatment. They certainly don't want to show her brother.
Instead, they frame the sick child as emblematic of all Gaza children.
And there is no indication that these NGOs they are trying to actually save Mariam's life.
The WFP knows very well that practically all of the food it brings into Gaza gets stolen. Since August 1, it collected 21053.66 tons of food at the Gaza border - and 21028 tons of it were stolen before it reached the intended recipients..
That's 99.9%.
This near-total failure of delivery by the WFP indicates either that Hamas is extraordinarily efficient at targeting the single biggest importer of food aid into Gaza, or that someone in the WFP is cooperating with Hamas and telling it where the shipments are going. This is not armed gangs or hungry people - only Hamas could be stealing WFP's food this completely. 72% of UN-coordinated aid into Gaza comes from WFP, of the remaining aid (World Central Kitchen UNICEF, ICRC, others) less than 50% has been stolen since August 1.
There is a serious problem at the World Food Programme, and it has nothing to do with the amount of food entering Gaza. Whether it is cooperating with Hamas directly or not, it knows that its current delivery model is not helping the people of Gaza at all - and yet it has not said a word about how virtually none of the aid it collects goes to the intended recipients.
Instead of trying to fix the problem of secure food deliveries to bring food to the children of Gaza, the WFP prefers to showcase sick children to get more aid that goes to enrich Hamas.
Is WFP a humanitarian organization or an agent of a terror group? Because its complete silence on the problem of distribution - which would solve the food problem completely - indicates that it is more aligned with Hamas than with the hungry of Gaza.
If the WFP would publicize the real problems, it would endanger its own business model. No one wants to directly give aid to Hamas.
And its decision to publicize a sick Gaza child to bring more aid into Gaza instead of working to get its existing food to the people who need it the most makes it look like it only cares about Mariam Dawas as long as her ribs are sticking out so she can be used to keep the money train going.
(h/t Irene)
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