DeskReport
With two emaciated hands, 12-year-old Jana Mohammad is trying to support her entire family. Recently, her struggle for life was captured on camera by the American media outlet CNN. Jana’s journey through the rubble of Gaza, wearing a pink sweater and carrying a bucket of water, is like a never-ending battle. Since her older brother was killed by an Israeli sniper, the responsibility of the family has fallen on her shoulders. Jana struggles every day to provide food and water to keep her sick parents alive.
This 12-year-old girl, standing in line to collect water in Gaza, said, “I don’t want my father to suffer. That’s why I’m tough.”
Humanitarian aid has been completely cut off in Gaza for the past 11 weeks due to the Israeli blockade and military operations. There is no food, no water. A UN report says that one in five people in Gaza is now at the extreme stage of starvation. Children have also started dying. The Ministry of Health says that at least 57 children have died so far due to malnutrition.
Jana’s four-month-old niece, Janat, was one of the children who died. Although weak since birth, Janat had been growing slowly. But when Israel banned the entry of all types of food and medicine on March 2, Janat began to weaken. Her mother’s milk began to decrease, she lost weight due to lack of food, and she suffered from diarrhea until she was completely exhausted. Doctors said that a special medical milk might have saved her. But they searched all over Gaza and couldn’t find it.
Janat was also allowed to be taken out of Gaza for treatment. But death stopped her on May 4. Janat weighed only 2.8 kg at the time of her death, which was slightly more than when she was born.
After the deaths of several relatives, including her brother and niece, Janat did not want to lose anyone else in her family. So she took on all the responsibilities of the family herself. Janat is now not just a name, but a symbol—a child who has no food, no water, no electricity, no school. But in the days before the war, she was a smiling teenager who performed dances. She danced many times to the applause of her friends. Today, that girl sits in the rubble and says, “I have no one else, I am as if I am dead.”
Jana has to run around all day in search of food. Luckily—one day, she finds two bowls of pasta with tomato sauce at a community kitchen. But she does not eat it herself. She shares it with her siblings, nephews, and nieces at home before she eats anything.
Most of Jana’s family has been killed—her brother, her sister’s husband, her cousin, and most recently her niece, Janat. Her mother is currently suffering from cancer, but there is no treatment available. The United Nations says 12,000 patients need to be evacuated from Gaza. Only 123 have been evacuated in the past two months.
Jana may be a young girl, but the burden of her life would put many adults to shame today. Standing in the blood-stained dust of Gaza, she is now a living question—when will the world na wake up?
