As the U.S. public begins to wake up to the reality of mass starvation in Gaza, recent mainstream media reports have issued a bold claim: Some cases of starvation can be explained not by the Israeli government’s near-total blockade on food, but by chronic illnesses.

The New York Post attempted to cast doubt on reports of starvation by suggesting that a small child’s skeletal frame was caused not by famine , but by cerebral palsy and other genetic disorders — as if a medical diagnosis could somehow cancel out the consequences of hunger. The New York Times issued a correction to its own story concerning the same child, noting that while he did suffer severe malnutrition, he “also had pre-existing health problems.”

But for those living with chronic illness or disability in Gaza, hunger

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