It is possible that Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq has chronic medical conditions, but the picture of him that the Guardian published leaves no doubt that he is also suffering from malnutrition (We published a photo of a malnourished child in Gaza. It made an impact globally – and created controversy, 6 August).
David Collier implies that cerebral palsy might be the cause of this, but for many years paediatricians have rejected the belief that malnutrition is an inevitable consequence of this condition, or indeed of many other chronic diseases affecting children. Nutritional supplementation, delivered if necessary by feeding tube, has been shown to prevent or reverse malnutrition in children with cerebral palsy when appropriate nutritional needs are met.
Of course, vulnerable children with chronic conditions are likely to be the first affected by the destruction of medical services, including unavailability of “specialist medical supplements”. This is hardly surprising given the blocking by Israel of aid shipments, including food and medical supplies, and the deliberate targeting of health infrastructure and staff.
Even for those determined to find alternative explanations such as an undiagnosed genetic disorder, this picture certainly illustrates severe malnutrition. I would suggest that the most likely cause for this is now obvious to most people.
Dr John Puntis
Retired paediatric consultant gastroenterologist, Leeds
Would Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq’s bones be so visible if he was living anywhere other than Gaza? How about if he was living a few miles across the border in Israel? I think we all know the answer to that. But clearly there are some individuals (no doubt well-fed individuals) for whom even this needs spelling out. Yes, that’s right, Gazan children with health conditions do lose weight when denied food, just as much as those born healthy. And let’s not call it a man-made famine. Let’s please call it as it is: an Israeli-made famine.
Shirin Fareed
Twickenham, London
Many of my wife’s Jewish family and of mine were victims of the Holocaust. The world remained largely silent. We were among the few who were reluctantly given asylum in New Zealand. The Jewish cry “Never again!” is more than justified. It has not been heeded. With the western world’s complicity, the victims now are the people of Palestine, robbed of their ancestral land, massacred in the tens of thousands, tortured in Israel’s prisons, threatened with expulsion, starved by design (‘We are dying slowly, save us’: starvation takes hold in Gaza after a week of appalling milestones, 2 August), treated as less than human – all this in defiance of international law.
The belated recognition of a Palestinian state is no more than window-dressing for as long as the Palestine that was remains under cruel military occupation. The time for measured language is well past. It is time for action. Sanctions ended apartheid South Africa. Archbishop Tutu held Israel’s crimes to be worse. Nato acted in Kosovo. Why not in Gaza?
Is the last word to be left with the White House as children go on dying? I write as a former chair of Amnesty International UK, one of the many NGOs now naming the genocide for what it is. Peace Now is possible, with the necessary political will.
Canon Dr Paul Oestreicher and Prof Barbara Einhorn
Wellington, New Zealand
While I agree with much of what Hussein Agha and Robert Malley say (France and Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state won’t stop Israel’s onslaught, 30 July), the public intention to give symbolic recognition to Palestine by France and others, and possibly the UK, is nevertheless a positive step forward. It sends the clear message, from some of the more powerful states in international politics, that the Palestinian people do deserve the right to self-determination.
The act of international recognition points to the lack of – and urgent need for – territory, government and sovereignty for Palestinians, whether in a one-state (“dignified coexistence”), federal-state or two-state model. Both Israel and Palestine deserve the right to self-determination, and that is an achievable goal, however repellent to the current Israeli government.
Dr Raia Browning
Oxford
I read your article with shock as well as horror (The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza, 31 July). What a devastating exposure of the chillingly callous use of deliberately finely tuned starvation, behind which surely lies a cruelty that many will struggle to understand.
Peter Millen
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
