Every day, we feature one story of a person or family surviving in Gaza and one about someone killed there recently, based on media reports.
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Nada Almadhoun, an intern in the obstetrics emergency department of a Gaza City hospital, describes one shift
Excerpt:
“At 6am, as dawn breaks on the morning of my shift, we welcome a new baby born to a mother from the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, an area surrounded by Israeli soldiers and tanks. As the first rays of sunlight pierce the delivery room, the mother cries happy tears, her face flushed as she hugs her baby girl.”
More at Al Jazeera
Muhammad Zakaria Eid, 15, killed by a falling aid pallet
Al Jazeera posted a video showing 15-year-old Muhammad Zakaria Eid who had been crushed to death by a falling pallet during an airdrop of humanitarian aid in Gaza on Saturday, August 9.
The video shows aid pallets landing fast and hard on the ground. It shows people gathering around the boy’s body and then the boy’s brother carries him away.
“Despite the famine and the hard conditions that we live in, my brother went to get aid that was dropped into the sea by planes. A box fell on him directly and he was martyred,” Eid’s brother says.
More at Al Jazeera
Three Gazans say they will refuse to evacuate if the Israeli army comes back into Gaza City
The Associated Press asked Gaza City residents to respond to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that the Israeli army will re-occupy the city. All three of those quoted said they would not leave.
“What does (Israel) want from us? ... There is nothing here to occupy. There is no life here. I have to walk every day for more than 15 minutes to get drinking water.” — Umm Youssef
“I have no intention to leave my home, I will die here.” — Kamel Abu Nahel.
“This is our land, there is no other place for us to go. We are not surrendering ... We were born here, and here we die.” — Ismail Zaydah
More at Associated Press
Suleiman al-Obeid, soccer star, killed waiting for food aid
Suleiman al-Obeid, 41, a star soccer player with the Palestinian national team, was killed August 6 in an Israeli attack on aid seekers near an aid distribution center in southern Gaza, according to the Palestinian football association.
He leaves behind a wife and five children.
The European soccer teams association UEFA posted a photo and a tribute to him on X: “Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid, the 'Palestinian Pelé'. A talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times.”
Liverpool soccer player Mohamed Salah, who is from Egypt, posted, “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?
More at Al Jazeera
Ehab Fasfous, 52: “They’ve deprived us of so much that now we’re behaving like animals.”
Much of the little aid that comes into Gaza is grabbed off the trucks by hungry Gazans before it can be distributed in an orderly way. Some is taken by armed gangs. The United Nations says hundreds of people have been killed trying to get aid directly from the trucks, mostly by Israeli soldiers.
On Wednesday, Ehab Fasfous, 52, a resident of the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, inched toward one of the routes that aid trucks use in Gaza, aware, he said, that Israeli soldiers could open fire if he ventured too close. He shared a series of videos of the mayhem he saw next: hundreds, perhaps thousands of people closing in on the trucks from every direction.
At one point in the videos, which he said he took, a man menaces another person with a knife near a bag of flour.
Mr. Fasfous went home empty-handed.
“They’ve deprived us of so much that now we’re behaving like animals,” he said.
More at The New York Times
Ahmed Alhasant, 41, diabetic, died of malnutrition
Ahmed Alhasant, 41, died on July 22. According to his brother, Yehia Alhasant, he "passed away peacefully" at his home in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Ahmed was particularly vulnerable to food deprivation than because he was diabetic.
“Day after day, he was getting more and more poorly," said his brother. He said Ahmed started to become unwell after Israel imposed a blockade of aid into Gaza in March. Since May, Israel has been allowing some aid into the territory, but aid groups say it is nowhere near enough.
For three months, Ahmed ate only bits of bread and occasionally canned food, Yehia said. His weight plummeted from nearly 180 pounds to less than 80, and his health rapidly deteriorated. "His speech was slurred and sometimes we could hardly understand him," Yehia said.
The family took him to a hospital, but according to Ahmed’s cousin Refaat Alhasant, the hospital staff told them, “He needs food, not medicines.”
More at BBC
Mohammed Imran, Ehab al-Helou, and Sabrine Mahmoud: three reactions to Netanyahu’s decision to occupy all of the Gaza strip
Mohammed Imran from Khan Younis said the change in terminology from “occupation” to “control” made little difference. “Replace the word ‘occupation’ with ‘control’ – the meaning and the result are the same: destruction and displacement,” he told the BBC. “We have nothing but God as long as those holding power in Gaza (Hamas) have lost their minds.”
Ehab al-Helou, activist and social media influencer: “I swear to God, Hamas leaders are living in a science fiction world. Have mercy on the people. Who are you to decide to sacrifice us?” he posted online.
Sabrine Mahmoud: “I will not leave my house. We will not live through displacement again. We left Gaza City for a whole year and endured the harshest humiliation in al-Mawasi. We will not repeat the mistake. Let them destroy the house over our heads – we will not leave.”
More at BBC
Sela Mahmoud, 8, killed in Israeli shelling of a camp for displaced persons
Her last words to her mother were: "I want to eat a whole bowl of lentils until I'm full."
On Monday night, July 21, Alaa Shehada set off trying to get food for her family at the Zikim aid point in northern Gaza, a couple of kilometers from the camp for displaced persons where she was staying with her four children.
She brought her 13-year-old daughter with her and left her three other children behind.
About 1:45am, Alaa says she heard shelling in the distance and immediately feared the worst. “I felt the strike in my heart,” she said. “My intuition as a mother told me this strike reached my kids.”
When she managed to reach one of her daughters by phone, she learned that eight-year-old Sela Mahmoud had been killed. "My heart was broken," says Alaa.
Her other two children at the camp were seriously injured and are in al-Shifa Hospital.
More at BBC
Kareem and Ayman, 12-year-old twin cousins of U.S. citizen Ghada Tafesh
Gaza-born, new U.S. citizen Ghada Tafesh used to swap recipes and photos of dinner spreads with her aunt Fairouz. Those days are gone. Her 12-year-old twin cousins look up at her from her phone with gaunt, exhausted faces. They have lost a quarter of their body weight.
Fairouz says it’s too dangerous to try to get food directly from the scarce aid trucks. They buy from street hawkers when they can — $20 for a tomato.
“I just hope that people in the United States would see Palestinians in Gaza as individuals rather than numbers,” says Ghada
More information: Washington Post
Abdullah Jendeia, aged 19, went to get food and didn’t come back
Abdullah Omar Jendeia, 19, was killed on Sunday, July 20, when he went out to find food, according to his sister Nadreen.
"He was impatient to go and fetch some food that day," she said. "I told him, 'Just eat the few lentils we have left,' but he refused."
She said Abdullah left the house about 4pm to walk more than 3.1 miles north to an aid truck that comes weekly, hoping to come back with flour to feed the family. He was with two of his brothers and some in-laws.
At about 11 that night, one of the brothers, Mahmoud, called Nadreen to tell her that while they were waiting by the aid truck Israeli soldiers had suddenly opened fire on them.
More at BBC
Dr. Ali Alhaj Salem, neo-natal intensive care specialist, Al-Helou Hospital, whose Instagram post struck a chord in Israel
Dr. Ali Alhaj Salem posted a short video on Instagram from inside his neo-natal intensive care unit in Al-Helou Hospital, showing the babies he is trying to care for.
Many were born prematurely because their mothers are malnourished, he said. The special formula for premature babies is “not available in our market,” he says in a matter-of-fact voice, but the hospital is making do with formula for full-term babies. Dr. Salem himself looks very thin.
Dr. Salem’s Instagram post moved Israeli designer Mushon Zer-Aviv, who wrote about it in the New York Times. Zer-Aviv’s own child was born three months prematurely and weighed less than two pounds. But all of human society had provided the specialist care, equipment, and supplies Zer-Aviv’s baby needed to survive and thrive. Not so today for Dr. Salem’s little patients born in Gaza.
More information at Instagram and the New York Times
Tariq Abu al-Shaer, 5, dreamed of becoming a pediatrician
Tariq Abu al-Shaer is one of the 18,500 children (under 18) on the list of children killed in Gaza published by the Washington Post.
The Post was able to get photos and descriptions of some of the children from family members. Tariq was one.
Unlike many children, Tariq would ask his mother to help him get ready quickly so he could hurry to school. He owned a bicycle and dreamed of becoming a pediatrician.
Last September, an airstrike killed Tariq, his brother Sannd who was just 70 days old, and his 8-year-old brother Abdul.
More information at Washington Post
Laylah Ziyarah and her baby son, Hani, who lost a leg in a bombing
“… On 22 February 2025, I gave birth to Hani. The joy was immense. I told him he brought us hope because he was born when the war ended. But the joy didn’t last long. Less than a month later, the war started again with even greater brutality. The house next to ours was bombed, and we were rescued from under the rubble, covered in dust. Hani’s face was black from the debris.
“We moved back to my parents’ house. There were eight of us there. On 21 June 2025, the house was bombed while we were inside. At that moment, I was sitting breastfeeding Hani with the kids and my sisters. There was a massive explosion. I heard walls collapsing, stones falling, and glass shattering, and then there was thick smoke and complete darkness. We couldn’t see each other. I heard voices screaming, crying and asking, ‘Is everyone okay? Who’s hurt?’
“I felt for Hani’s head, then his body. When I reached his right leg, it was simply gone. …”
More from B’Tselem, an Israeli non-governmental organization
Abdul Rahim, boy who thanked aid worker for food, then was shot
Last May 28, an aid worker for the US- and Israel-backed aid organization Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) gave a boy some food. The boy thanked him, kissed his hand, and went back to the crowd of people who had come there hoping to get food. Israeli soldiers opened fire on the crowd, killing the boy and others.
The aid worker was Anthony Aguilar, a United States Army veteran. He has circulated photos of the boy. The boy’s mother identified him as her son, Abdul Rahim, with whom she had lost contact after he set off for the food distribution site.
The Israelis say they only fire warning shots and that their purpose is to control the huge crowds at the GHF sites.
More information: Al Jazeera
A day in the life of Abeer and Fadi Sobh and their six children
Washing in seawater in the morning, getting the kids to sleep more during the day, waiting by the soup kitchen that’s rarely open, begging for food when it’s not. Sometimes, someone shares a little.
More information at Associated Press
Ayloul Qaud, 7 years old
Ayloul was “the most beautiful child I have ever seen in my life, inside and out,” said her aunt Hiba Muqdad. “We would walk in the street and she would refuse to buy anything, knowing that other children in the street were unable to eat.”
On July 30, 2025, the Washington Post published the names of 18,500 children killed in Gaza. For some, like Ayloul, the Post published photos and stories supplied by their families.
More information at Washington Post
What happened when Maher Al-Hattab tried to get food from the GHF, and why Basel Hasouna decided not to go
Maher Al-Hattab, 19, plucked up his nerve and joined the crowds outside one of the collection sites for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the U.S.- and Israeli-backed food distribution outfit. system that's replaced the U.N. aid system in Gaza.
Israeli troops fired at them as they waited for food. Hattab, lying in the sand, saw people hit.
When the trucks arrived with less food than expected, Hattab says people fought over it, some with knives. Hattab survived. He came away with enough food for his family for two days.
…
Basel Hasouna has five hungry children, but he says the people who need food the most are not getting it, and dozens of people have been killed just this week approaching the GHF or aid trucks. He doesn’t want his son to be humiliated trying to get food. He says they would rather die of hunger at home.
More information at NPR
Salwa, 4 ½, one of five children who starved to death at Patient’s Friends Hospital for lack of nutrition supplies
Salwa arrived at the hospital with alarmingly low potassium levels. She could barely move her body. But medicine for potassium deficiency has largely run out across Gaza. Salwa did not respond to the low-concentration potassium the hospital was able to give her and died after three days.
The hospital staff is starving, too. Two nurses put themselves on IV drips to keep themselves going. “We are exhausted. We are dead in the shape of the living,” said nutritionist Dr. Rana Soboh.
More information at Associated Press
Nehma Hamouda, grandmother of orphaned infant
Nehma Hamouda’s daughter gave birth prematurely after she was shot by Israeli soldiers. That was three months ago. Several weeks later, the new mother died.
Since then, Nehma has been trying to take take of her tiny grandchild, Muntaha. Muntaha can’t yet process solid food, even if there was some. Nehma can’t get baby formula.
“I resort to tea for the girl,” Hamouda said. “She’s not eating, and there’s no sugar. Where can I get her sugar? I give her a bit [of anise], and she drinks a bit.”
“At times, when we get lentil soup from the soup kitchen, I strain the water, and I try to feed her. What can I do?”
More information: Al Jazeera
Zainab Abu Halib, 5-month old baby, died weighing less than the day she was born
Zainab Abu Halib weighed two kilograms, about 4.4 pounds, when she died of starvation. At her birth five months ago, she weighed three kilograms.
Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula. But the girl needed special formula because she was allergic to cow’s milk. There was none.
“With my daughter’s death, many will follow,” said the mother. “Their names are on a list that no one looks at. They are just names and numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.”
More information: Los Angeles Times