UAE's relief effort offers lifeline to starving Gaza muezzin

Dubai: In a battered tent on the western edge of this southern Gaza city, 85-year-old Sulaim Asfour sits, his frail body reduced to skin and bone. 

Once the strong, steady voice of the Sahaba Mosque, calling the faithful to prayer five times a day, he is now a silent testament to the hunger gripping the enclave.

Asfour’s plight, his weight plunging from more than 70 kilograms to less than 40, spread rapidly on social media after images showed him gaunt, hollow-eyed, and barely able to stand. 

He says he suffers no illness other than the relentless deprivation brought by Israel’s months-long blockade, which has left many residents without access to bread, vegetables, or clean water.

“There are days I eat nothing but crushed wheat with a pinch of spice,” he said in a video that sparked a wave of outrage and sympathy online. “Sometimes, I go five days without bread.”

His appeal drew a response from the UAE’s 'Gallant Knight 3', one of the largest relief efforts underway in Gaza. 

Emirati teams delivered food, vegetables, fruit, flour, and other essentials directly to Asfour, aiming to stabilize his health and ease his suffering.

In a recorded message, Asfour thanked President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the people of the UAE for their aid, which he said had given him “a chance to live again.”

For the muezzin who once filled his neighborhood with the sound of prayer, the fight now is not for the call to worship, but for the next meal.