Children’s YouTube star Ms. Rachel has made an emotional plea for help for kids in Gaza, as a United Nations official warned that 14,000 babies could starve to death within days if Israel did not end its blockade of the territory.
In a tearful video posted on her Instagram, Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, shared an image of an emaciated Palestinian baby while rocking her own newborn Susannah on her arms.
“World leaders, please help this baby. Please look at her. Please, please look at her. Just, please look at her eyes for one minute,” she says in the video.
“If you just look at her, and if you just think about a baby you love, think about a baby you care so much for, there's no way that we all don't know that you can't kill 15,000 kids, and you can't be about to let 14,000 kids starve,” she continues.
The image appears to be that of Siwar Ashour, a 6-month-old baby, who has a problem with her oesophagus that makes it difficult for her to drink breast milk. That has left her dependent on specialized baby formula, which is in short supply due to the blockade.
“Whatever is keeping you from standing up for these kids who don't have food and medical care, and who have had amputations without anesthesia, whatever is keeping you from saying it, it's not greater than your humanity,” Accurso continues in the video.
Her emotional plea comes hours after the U.N. humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, warned that 14,000 babies in Gaza are at risk of dying in the next 48 hours unless Israel allows life-saving food and supplements into Gaza immediately.
Israel partially lifted its 11-week-long aid blockade of Gaza on Sunday after dire warnings of famine and severe malnutrition from aid workers inside the territory, but Fletcher said more access was needed to save lives and described the humanitarian situation there as "utterly chilling."
The UN said that no aid had been distributed as of Tuesday.
Since the aid blockade began, 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The UN said last week that one in five people in Gaza, which is around 500,000 people, face starvation.
A former child educator from Maine, Ms. Rachel has built an audience of nearly 15 million subscribers on YouTube with her mix of educational videos and songs for young children.
With billions of views on her channel, and millions more across Instagram and TikTok, she now sits atop a booming empire with her own line of toys and books, and a show on Netflix. The New York Times called her “this era’s Mister Rogers.”
Accurso has become an outspoken critic of the dire humanitarian situation for children in Gaza as Israel’s war has continued for more than a year and a half.
She previously told The Independent that she was motivated to speak out against the ongoing war after seeing videos and images of children being killed, injured and malnourished on her social media feed.
“I couldn’t look away from the scale and gravity of suffering I was seeing every day,” Ms. Rachel said in the January interview.
“I know how crucial the first few years are for brain development and the lifelong effects trauma and malnutrition have on the brain. It’s a failure of humanity to deny children food, water, medical care, shelter and education, and to not protect children from violence,” she added.
The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.
Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. Of that number, some 15,000 are children.
