Tunisian President Kais Saied presented disturbing images of starving children in Gaza during a meeting on Tuesday with Masad Boulos, senior adviser to US President Donald Trump on Arab, Middle East, and African affairs, the presidency said in a statement.

A video released by the Tunisian presidency showed Saied greeting Boulos at the Carthage Presidential Palace before displaying several photos of emaciated children from Gaza. In one image, a crying child is seen eating sand with a spoon.

“I believe you are familiar with these images,” Saied told Boulos. “A child is crying, eating sand in occupied Palestine—in the 21st century. He had nothing else to eat.”

He then showed another image of a malnourished child whose bones were protruding through his skin. “This child is dying from hunger. Surely, you’ve seen many images like this,” Saied said.

Presenting a third photo, Saied continued: “This is utterly unacceptable. This is a crime against all of humanity. This child is on the verge of death, perhaps already gone.”

“Here is another child who couldn't even find a drop of water. This is completely unacceptable,” he added.

‘Bold decisions must be made’

Saied questioned the relevance of international law in the face of such suffering. “Is this what international legitimacy looks like? It is collapsing day by day and has no meaning when we see these tragedies the Palestinian people endure every day, every hour.”

He also denounced Israeli attacks beyond Gaza. “Palestinians are being bombed everywhere, not just in Gaza but throughout Palestine.”

Displaying a photo of a girl who is drinking water, Saied said: “It’s time for humanity to wake up and end these crimes.”

Holding up an image of Palestinians carrying the bodies of dead infants, Saied asked: “These are infants. What did the Palestinian people do wrong for being denied their right to self-determination? There are too many tragic images—and we must put a stop to this.”

He described the images as “shocking to all of humanity” and accused Israeli forces of committing atrocities against the Palestinian people. “This is a war aimed at forcing people to internalize defeat—but free nations never accept defeat.”

Saied added: “These are just a few among many such images, and you constantly hear calls (to end genocide and starvation).”

“Today, bold decisions must be made. The Palestinian people are the rightful owners of all Palestinian land—in both Gaza and the West Bank, which has been divided (by Israel),” he said.

“Settlers, under the protection of Zionist forces, have seized land (in the occupied West Bank) and fragmented Palestinian territory into isolated cantons,” he said.

Trump envoy silent

Saied accused Israeli forces of committing “horrific atrocities,” noting that “thousands have been killed, thousands exterminated, and thousands more forcibly displaced—gathered into locations that are then targeted.”

“Entire residential complexes have been destroyed across all of Palestine, not only in Gaza,” he said.

Saied reaffirmed: “All of Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people, until a Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Standing alongside Boulos in front of media cameras, Saied spoke for nearly six minutes while presenting the images and condemning starvation used by Israel as a tool of genocide. Boulos remained silent, occasionally nodding and glancing between the photos and the president.

Earlier Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry announced that the number of deaths from famine and malnutrition since October 2023 had risen to 101, including 80 children, following the deaths of 15 Palestinians, four of them children, in the previous 24 hours.

On Sunday, the Government Media Office in Gaza warned that the territory was on the brink of “mass death” after more than 140 consecutive days of border closures.

Since March 2, Israel has stalled on implementing a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas and has kept Gaza’s border crossings shut, leaving humanitarian aid trucks stranded along the frontier.

Israel has killed more than 59,100 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.