Why more Americans should care about Gaza’s starvation crisis | Opinion

On July 22, ABC News tweeted, “Fifteen people have died — including four children — from famine and malnutrition in Gaza in the last 24 hours, Hamas-run health ministry says.”

“Release the hostages,” Rep. Fandy Fine, R-Florida, responded. “Until then, starve away. (This is all a lie anyway. It amazes me that the media continues to regurgitate Muslim terror propaganda.)”

Fine represents Florida’s Sixth Congressional District and his pronouns are “Hebrew/Hammer,” according to his Twitter bio, which says nothing about the presence of a heart, or soul.

But he doesn’t just represent one district in Florida. In a real sense, he represents us all, every American taxpayer whose dollars have directly supported Israel’s war in Gaza. That description of this nearly two-year war is far too bland, though. It’s Israel’s war on Palestinians in the area, including Palestinian children who are starving to death. And it’s America’s, too.

After being criticized, Fine retweeted a photo of 22-year-old Libi Cohen-Meguri, a victim of the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas. “When you wonder why I don’t give a s--- about Gazans, here is one reason,” he wrote, swearing. “As if it wasn’t enough, there are 1,450 more.”

Hamas shot Cohen-Meguri at the Nova music festival that day, then shot her repeatedly as she tried to flee. Her final moments were captured during a phone call to her family.

We all should care about what happened to Cohen-Meguri, and grieve with her family, and those of other victims. That doesn’t mean we should accept Israel’s decision to create so many other victims, either the 60,000 estimated dead, a number that includes combatants and civilians, or some 2 million now under threat, displaced or facing starvation.

Fine may not give a damn, but the rest of us should care more about 6-week-old Yousef al-Safadi, described by The Washington Post as “so small in photographs from the silver table of the hospital morgue that the white sleepsuit peeled back to show how his jutting ribs dwarfed his slight body.”

We should give a damn about 25-year-old Ayat al-Soradi, who The Washington Post said was so malnourished during her pregnancy that twins Ahmed and Mazen arrived two months early.

They reportedly weighed about 2 pounds each, and she watched over them for almost a month in their incubators as nurses fed them with powdered milk. Ahmed died 13 days after being discharged. Mazen returned to the hospital, so malnourished he could barely breathe.

Despite what you may have heard, none of this is necessary for Israel’s safety.

The New York Times Magazine reported this month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept the war going “longer than even Israel’s senior military leadership deemed necessary” to hold onto power. Otherwise, his ruling coalition might fracture and he would finally have to face alleged corruption crimes if he stops authorizing bombs.

Israel is in charge of the region and has had an aid blockade in place since early March, though partially opened it because Netanyahu feared that photos of mass starvation might dull support in the United States for Israel’s now-unnecessary war.

He needn’t worry about Americans. Because we don’t care enough to pressure our own government to stop being complicit in Israel’s actions, which a growing number of independent organizations have referred to as a genocide or declared have genocidal elements.

Hell, we Americans are hardly moved no matter how many starving Palestinians are shot by the Israeli military while trying to reach aid trucks for food. And we seemed to not even know — or care — about our government’s decision to destroy about 500 metric tons of expired food in the Middle East that could have fed starving people. Another 600 metric tons were saved only after an official in the Trump administration noted that destroying biscuits with a limited shelf life would be a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Congressman Fine should not be representing anyone. And yet we’re allowing leaders like him to set the moral course of our country.

We should be ashamed and disgusted — with ourselves.

Issac J. Bailey is a McClatchy opinion writer in North Carolina and South Carolina.

This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM.