A CHILDHOOD DENIED

Over half of Gaza’s population are children. And it is their bodies that now speak most loudly of the cruelty being enacted. UNICEF has sounded alarms: one in three children is acutely malnourished. The figures only scratch the surface. The rest are slipping quietly into starvation. Babies weigh less than they did at birth.

Children in Gaza no longer speak of toys or school. They speak of food, of fear, of pain. Toddlers have forgotten how to laugh. They now flinch at sunlight, mistaking it for drones. A little boy was found trying to eat leaves. Another girl sat beside her mother’s body, not fully understanding that death meant she would be alone forever.

Their lullabies are drones. Their playgrounds are rubble. Their futures are being buried one meal at a time.

A CALL TO CONSCIENCE

Gaza is not just a place. It is a mirror. And what it shows us is horrifying. It reflects a global order in which life can be measured in strategic value, in which hunger can be weaponized, and in which children can be abandoned because their suffering does not fit a geopolitical narrative.

And in this mirror, we must also see ourselves.

This is not about politics. This is about humanity.

We must demand:

- A total and unconditional ceasefire.

- Unimpeded humanitarian access under international observation.

- Full restoration of humanitarian agencies.

- Legal accountability for the starvation of civilians.

- A global children’s rehabilitation fund focused on Gaza’s youth.

Let us act, not because we are saviors, but because we are human.

WE MUST NOT LOOK AWAY

“Mama, I’m hungry”—these are not words we should ever hear as the last breath of a child. And yet, in Gaza, they echo every day.

If we fail to respond, we lose more than lives, we lose the very essence of who we are.

Gaza is starving. Our conscience is dying with it.

Let our legacy be that we did not stay silent. That we did not look away. That we chose life over politics, compassion over complicity, and courage over silence.

Sudha Sreenivasa Reddy is a coconvenor of Peacebuilders Forum India. She works at the prestigious Indian Law Institute in Bangalore, South India researching on the rights of children and food security. Apart from her professional duties, Sudha is a longtime development worker and has focused on the areas of women and children’s empowerment, as well as environment and peace.