from Daily Sabah
A few weeks ago, a journalist friend shared his latest column on social media, titled "Brother, I Haven’t Eaten in Three Days." It captured the haunting collapse of Gaza, where famine is a cruel daily reality. I come from Kashmir, a conflict-infested region, where I have witnessed death and destruction up close and narrowly escaped death on several occasions. Yet, never have I felt so tormented, so utterly helpless, as when I read those lines. His words cut to my very core.
That evening, as I sat down for dinner, I faced a moral dilemma: how could I eat while, at that very moment, hundreds of thousands in Gaza were starving? The question gnawed at my conscience and continues to haunt me still.
The very next day, Aug. 22, 2025, after the congregational prayers, a Palestinian friend I had come to know since last Ramadan tapped me on the shoulder. His face seemed worn with exhaustion as he said, "Brother, I barely slept last night. The U.N. has formally declared famine in Gaza, a man-made famine."
In response to his sharing the news, I asked, in a voice brittle with helplessness, "Will this declaration end the starvation forced on Gaza?" He shook his head slowly. "No ... but it means intervention may now be legally justified." His words struck me with bitter cynicism. The declaration, like so many before it, seemed less about saving lives than about recording a crisis that had been unfolding for months, even years, under siege and blockade, with no meaningful relief reaching the helpless...
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