Catholic Activist’s Call for Help for Gaza Children, Elderly Goes Viral
An American Catholic activist’s plea for help for the children and elderly in Gaza facing starvation due to an Israel-imposed blockade has gone viral on X, garnering more than 3 million views in less than two days.
“There are children in Gaza, they’re starving to death,” Jason Jones, president of the Vulnerable People Project, says in the voiced-over video, which shows photos of malnourished children and other suffering persons.
“Imagine your grandmother, your great-grandmother, frail and starving, spending the last days of her life surrounded by rubble, witnessing her own children and grandchildren dying,” he continues. “You judge a society by how it treats its youngest, oldest, and most vulnerable.”
The video was posted May 20 to the Jason Jones Show X account, which had slightly over 3,000 followers at the time of this article’s publication. By May 22, the video had garnered 3.2 million views.
According to Jones, 90% of homes in Gaza are destroyed and 5% of the population is dead or wounded. The blockade into Gaza is preventing the delivery of some humanitarian aid into the city, he said. The video also shows Jones in a warehouse, which he explains is about three hours from Gaza and is filled with pallets of humanitarian aid, donated by organizations and governments from around the world. He said he prays the food can be brought into Gaza.
The BBC reported that on May 20 Israel agreed “to allow a ‘basic amount of food’ to enter Gaza, where global experts have warned of a looming famine.”
According to Reuters, the Israeli military said 98 aid trucks in total entered Gaza on Monday and Tuesday. Israel imposed the supplies blockade in March, stating that “Hamas was seizing supplies meant for civilians — a charge the group denies,” Reuters reported.
The outlet added that the supplies that entered Monday and Tuesday “have not made it to Gaza’s soup kitchens, bakeries, markets and hospitals, according to aid officials and local bakeries that were standing by to receive supplies of flour.”
NBC reported that on May 22 Israel’s Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said 198 trucks have entered Gaza.
A separate article from Reuters reports that on May 22 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a food “distribution zone” was nearing completion. Netanyahu said in a May 22 statement, “Ultimately, we intend to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza. The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety, while we conduct combat in other zones, and receive humanitarian aid there without Hamas interference.”
In his post, Jones directed people to help through his website ceasefirenow.org, which states that by December 2024 the death toll in Gaza was estimated around 45,000. In January, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal. It collapsed in March. Jones’ website stated that almost 700 people in the Gaza Strip were killed in a series of airstrikes within a one-week period in March and from April through May 21, numerous airstrikes have killed civilians, including women and children.
In the video, Jones thanked President Donald Trump for calling for the blockade to be opened and Pope Leo XIV for appealing from the beginning of his pontificate for a ceasefire and removal of the blockade.
“I join my president, and I join Pope Leo XIV,” Jones said, “in calling for an end to the blockade and calling for a ceasefire.”