Two-year-old Palestinian Yezen Abu Ful,whose health has deteriorated due to lack of access to food,with his mother in Al-Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza (Picture: Anadolu)
A doctor has detailed what exactly happens to a human body when it’s dying from starvation,in a plea for Israel to allow aid into Gaza.
Dr Amir Khan goes through step by step how the body begins to break down in the days and hours leading up to death,adding: ‘It’s not peaceful,it’s not quick,it’s a slow,lonely descent into silence.’
The NHS worker told viewers: ‘This is a reel I wish I didn’t have to make,but it’s so important to speak up and for people to know this.’
It comes as the United Nation’s food agency,the World Food Programme (WFP),said almost a third of people in Gaza are ‘not eating for days’ and describing the crisis has having reached ‘new and astonishing levels of desperation’.
The WFP said 470,000 people are expected to have faced ‘catastrophic hunger’ between May and September this year.
Meanwhile,the World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza is suffering ‘man-made mass starvation’ because of an Israeli blockade on aid to the enclave.
Dr Amir Khan explaining what happens to a person’s body when they are dying from starvation (Picture: Dr Amir Khan GP/Instagram)
Israel has denied any responsibility,with some ministers and officials even suggesting there is no hunger in Gaza – but has today allowed foreign aid to be parachuted into the territory.
The UN has documented the deaths of dozens of people from malnutrition this week,and says others have collapsed in the streets while trying to reach food.
In his post Dr Khan explained that when a person is starving the body first uses up glucose,‘its quickest fuel’.
He added: ‘That’s gone in about 24 hours. You feel shaky,dizzy,cold,your stomach cramps,and worse than the hunger is the exhaustion,like your bones are filled with sand.
‘Next,the body burns fat. You lose weight rapidly,your cheeks sink,your clothes hang off you,but your brain is still alert and now it’s panicking.
‘You can’t stop thinking about food,the smell of bread,the memory of taste. It becomes torture.’
One-and-a-half-year-old Muhammed Zakariya Ayyub al-Matouk,one of thousands of children suffering from hunger and malnutrition (Picture Anadolu)
He said the body then starts ‘eating muscle,including the heart’.
‘You feel weak,too tired to sit up,your legs tremble,every movement is an effort,’ he said.
‘You speak less and then you stop speaking altogether. Your brain begins to starve,confusion,hallucinations.
‘You see things that aren’t there,you forget who you are. It’s terrifying. You feel freezing cold,even in the heat.’
Follow us to receive the latest news updates from Metro (Picture: Getty Images)Metro’s on Whatsapp! Join our community for breaking news and juicy stories.After this your skin breaks down,he explained,and ‘your body hurts to lie on but you can’t sit up’.‘In the final stages,organs shut down,breathing becomes shallow,heartbeat slows,consciousness fades,’ he added.
Displaced Palestinians wait to receive hot meals distributed by aid organizations in Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City (Picture: Anadolu)He concludes the reel by telling viewers: ‘Children in Gaza are feeling this right now. This isn’t happening in a [natural] famine,this is not a natural death,it’s a man-made one,and it’s preventable.‘Let aid in,don’t look away,don’t wait for history to judge,speak now.’
A distressed child receives food at an aid distribution point (Picture: Anadolu via Getty Images)They were,however,among 28 countries to have signed a letter condemning the ‘the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians,including children,seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food’.The statement signed by the 28 foreign ministers added: ‘The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous,fuels instability and deprives Gazan’s of human dignity.’The statement said Israel’s war on Gaza ‘must end now’.
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