Despite reaching Turkiye for treatment, four-year-old Abdullah Abu Zerka died of malnutrition. His younger sister continues fighting on.
Istanbul, Turkiye – The fluorescent lights of Adana City Training and Research Hospital cast harsh shadows across Hamed Abu Zerka’s gaunt face as he stands beside his six-month-old daughter’s hospital bed.
The 34-year-old’s weathered hands tremble as he adjusts Habiba’s blanket.
Abdullah, his four-and-a-half-year-old son, died Tuesday morning in this same room, his small body finally succumbing to the malnutrition that had been slowly consuming him for months as Israel laid siege to Gaza.
The family became emblems of the Israel-imposed famine on Gaza’s 2.1 million people when a video of Abdullah went viral weeks ago, the clearly malnourished child screaming in hunger, asking for food, as his mother wept helplessly.
