Yazan al-Kafarneh, a ten-year-old Palestinian boy from Gaza, had been dying of hunger for weeks as a result of Israel’s crippling blockade and deliberate starvation of Gaza. Images and videos of Yazan, who had cerebral palsy, showed the motionless boy lying on a hospital bed with a skeletal body, sunken cheeks, bare bones, and hollowed eyes. For days his parents sat helpless by his bed and watched him fade away. His father shared an older photo of Yazan, healthy and happy, just before Israel displaced the family from Beit Hanoun in North Gaza to Rafah in the South.

Yazan succumbed to starvation yesterday morning, dying in his mother’s arms at a local hospital in Rafah. He weighed eleven pounds when he died. “Today, I lost my son due to lack of food,” his grieving father told reporters. His weeping mother added:

I lost my child today after ten days at the hospital due to malnutrition. My son’s health rapidly deteriorated and he lost weight until he became a skeleton. My son is now in heaven, but I never imagined that we would reach this stage. My message to the world is to look at Gaza’s children and see how their lives have changed.