Hoda Abu Al-Naja
Age 12
Hoda was 12. Before the Israeli blockade of food and medicine destroyed her body, she was the little mother of her family—the oldest of five siblings. Despite her gluten allergy, she was forced to painfully bake nauseating bread in a clay oven before putting her younger brothers and sisters to sleep in their tent. Even as she went hungry, unable to eat the bread she made for her siblings, she spent her hours in the hospital coloring images of boats and sailboats. Symbols of the freedom she was being denied. She called herself a “skeleton.” She only wanted to be somewhere else where she could eat again, walk to the sea, and play with her siblings.
Hoda’s life depended on leaving Gaza to receive special foods for her allergies. The blockade made getting this food impossible. Her parents fought daily to find anything she could eat. By June 2025, her doctors had officially recommended her for medical evacuation and treatment in Italy.
For months, Israeli officials refused to sign a travel permit, knowing that every day they delayed, Hoda suffered in cruel agony more and more. Their blockade prevented healthy food from even entering her neighborhood, starving hundreds of other children at the exact same time as her. This was the point: for grown adults to watch many 12-year-old girls deteriorate for as long as possible.
Hoda wasted away on October 9, 2025, in a hospital bed with nothing. In a final act of cruelty, Israeli officials approved Hoda’s evacuation to Italy in November. A month after she had already starved to death.
The votes that paid for the weapons
Joint Resolution, S.J.Res. 34: Block arms sale to Israel—1000-lb bombs
Joint Resolution, S.J.Res. 33: Block arms sale to Israel—2000-lb bombs (reattempt)
House Bill, H.R. 8034: Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024