Gaza has become a graveyard – both literally and morally

There have been countless, unimaginable horrors in Gaza since the war began, yet somehow the nightmare is getting even darker.

WARNING: DISTRESSING

OPINION

I have been in and out of Gaza many times over the last year, and every time it feels like stepping into an even darker version of the nightmare I had left behind.

I most recently returned in late May, after a long and dangerous journey and went straight to check on two old friends. I was relieved they were still alive, but shocked to feel the bones underneath their clothes as I hugged them. Their faces were gaunt, their arms frail, and their bodies visibly wasting away. They are mothers, like so many others here, giving every scrap of food they can find to their children and surviving on little or nothing themselves. It’s a silent, everyday act of love and desperation. Across Gaza, this is the reality: mothers are starving themselves so that their children might have a chance to live.

Since the horrific October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups, I have asked myself many times whether the relentless killing, maiming, and starving of Gaza’s children by Israeli forces could get any worse, any more inhumane. Terrifyingly, it has.

Again, and again.

There have been countless, unimaginable horrors in Gaza since the war began, including the bombing of hospitals and schools, children being disappeared, and the deliberate deprivation of lifesaving humanitarian aid to those in need. The most recent outrage is the near-daily massacre of civilians at the Israeli-backed militarised distribution sites run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The GHF’s “safe” corridors to access aid are anything but. Civilians are herded like cattle into barren lots, scanned by drones, and often, shot at while they wait to receive the bare minimum they need to survive. At least 1000 people have been killed and over 5000 injured while trying to access aid at GHF sites.

Yazan, a malnourished 2-year-old Palestinian boy, lays on a mattress in his family's damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. Picture: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP

A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front Lebanese soldiers blocking the road outside the Egyptian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Picture: AP Photo/Hussein Malla

Make no mistake: any humanitarian aid is welcome. But what has been proposed so far – just 1 per cent of what is needed – is the opposite of humanitarian. It’s inhumane, effectively guaranteeing continued starvation, lawlessness and desperation. Simply put, the GHF is not a humanitarian aid system. It is a deliberate and deadly failure.

According to the most recent IPC figures, more than 93 per cent of the children in Gaza are at critical risk of famine. Yet there are just four GHF sites replacing the hundreds that the UN and NGOs like Save the Children used to operate under the old humanitarian architecture.

Israeli soldiers stand near a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip on July 23. Picture: Amir Levy/Getty Images

A child is given a ride by a protester during a national demonstration for Palestine and Lebanon, in central London, in 2024. Picture: Carlos Jasso/AFP

The international community must demand that food not be used as a weapon of war. It must insist that all parties of the conflict facilitate unfettered access to a wide source of aid that people living in a war zone need to survive. Just delivering a tiny bit of food is no good to a child who is drinking dirty water and will die of a waterborne disease. Food is no good to a child who can’t recover from the third degree burns on her legs caused by a bomb blast due to the siege on medical supplies and antibiotics.

Georgia Tracey in Gaza. Picture: Supplied

It’s not just the hunger and violence wreaking havoc across Gaza. It’s the hopelessness. My colleagues speak of children in our programs expressing suicidal thoughts. We are seeing a sharp increase in children being orphaned not just once, but twice as their foster families also are killed or injured. We’re seeing severe behavioural issues, aggression, deep fatigue, disassociation, lack of focus, because, quite simply, children are starving and are exposed to unimaginable trauma every day. Parents are constantly terrified. It’s not easy to ask them to send their child to one of our programs when the last time they walked to fetch water they watched someone get shot in the street.

Israeli activists march with sacks of flour towards the Israeli defence ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. Picture: Jack Guez/ AFP

This picture taken from a position at Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during an Israeli strike on the besieged Palestinian territory. Picture: Jack Guez/AFP

Healthcare here is not just collapsing, it’s cruel. A British surgeon at Nasser Hospital told me he’s performing surgeries on children using expired muscle relaxants. Children are waking up mid-surgery, writhing in pain. A colleague of ours was significantly injured by a bomb blast and needed reconstructive surgery on her foot and pelvis. But doctors told her she had to wait five days as they did not have any beds available and that they had no pain killers for her to take while she waited for the surgery. Imagine sustaining that type of an injury involving shattered bones and shrapnel wounds and being told not only that you could not get emergency surgery, but that you would have to wait for days with no relief. It’s medieval.

Georgia Tacey says that every time rumours of a ceasefire begin, hope flickers, then vanishes. Picture: Supplied

Every time rumours of a ceasefire begin, hope flickers, then vanishes. And every time it does, the crash in morale is worse. For our staff, who are among the “lucky ones” with jobs, the disappointment is visceral. For the tens of thousands of displaced people with no income, no food, and no roof over their heads, it’s devastating.

I know Gaza often feels far away for Australians. But please believe me when I say this is not a political crisis. It is a moral one. What’s happening here is not a natural disaster, it is human-made, and it is preventable. And if we accept what is happening now in Gaza, what’s to stop other actors thinking they too can get away with it elsewhere? It sets a dangerous new precedent where one party to a conflict can choose what rights a civilian population can and cannot have, without any regard for international law. And the whole world becomes less safe.

Never before has the systematic starvation and dehumanisation of an entire population been so well documented, filmed and sent to our devices to watch in real time every day. The Australian government must speak louder, not just for aid access, but for the basic dignity and protection of civilians. We need pressure. We need accountability. We need an end to the killing.

Save the Children’s Georgia Tacey has been working on the Gaza program for over 12

months, including being deployed there a number of times since November 2024. She is

currently back in Australia.

Originally published as Gaza has become a graveyard – both literally and morally