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Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Middle East Eye
Displaced in Gaza: Recounting stories from the Gaza genocide
In this powerful new collection, 27 Palestinians from Gaza - students, mothers, fathers, grandparents, children and teachers - recount their experiences of being internally displaced in Gaza after Israel's invasion of Gaza and subsequent genocidal campaign. Published by Haymarket Books, in collaboration with the American Friends Service Committee and the Hashim Sani Center for Palestine Studies, the book offers raw, unfiltered voices from the heart of Gaza's ongoing nightmare. A searing chronicle of a people's suffering under genocide, it is also a celebration of their enduring humanity and hope. From the start, Displaced in Gaza makes clear that these stories are not mere accounts of pain and loss; they are assertions of identity, resilience and resistance. Reading the testimonies is an emotionally charged experience, one that leaves the reader shaken by the horrors described within. Palestinians in Gaza retrieve aid amid the Israeli-imposed siege on the territory in June (AFP)


Al Etihad
3 days ago
- Al Etihad
UAE brings hope to Gaza, eases siege on food, water
30 July 2025 10:34 ABU DHABI (WAM) The United Arab Emirates continues its extensive efforts to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, who have endured severe hunger and thirst for over a year and a UAE has been delivering large-scale food aid to the enclave by land, air and sea, while also launching sustainable initiatives such as providing automatic bakeries and setting up field kitchens, complemented by several projects aimed at securing access to clean drinking water for efforts come amid a dramatic deterioration of the food and water crisis in Gaza. Palestinian medical sources reported two days ago that 147 people, including 88 children, have died from malnutrition. Recent data from the United Nations World Food Programme and UNICEF showed that more than one in three people in Gaza — 39 per cent — are going days without food. Over 500,000 people, nearly a quarter of Gaza's population, are experiencing famine-like conditions, while the rest face emergency levels of the dire situation on the ground, the tragedy would have been even more catastrophic without the UAE's continued support since the launch of 'Operation Chivalrous Knight 3'. According to UN reports, Emirati aid has accounted for 44 per cent of all international assistance delivered to Gaza to the food relief front, the UAE has successfully delivered tens of thousands of tonnes of food supplies to the people of Gaza through land convoys, airdrops under the 'Birds of Goodness' operation, and maritime shipments. The most recent was the Khalifa aid ship, which carried a total of 7,166 tonnes, including 4,372 tonnes of counter the severe bread shortage that emerged early in the conflict, the UAE sent automatic bakeries into Gaza in February 2024. It also supplied flour and other essentials to support the daily operation of over 21 field UAE also helped operate field kitchens and more than 50 charitable soup kitchens that serve hot meals daily to affected families in the last Ramadan, Emirates Red Crescent carried out an iftar campaign in Gaza that provided 13 million meals, supported 44 soup kitchens which benefited over 2 million people, and supplied 17 bakeries that served 3.12 million parallel, the UAE moved swiftly to confront the looming water crisis threatening the lives of over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, especially after widespread damage to pumping stations and distribution networks due to the days of launching Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, the UAE established six desalination plants with a total capacity of 2 million gallons of water per day, serving over 600,000 people in July 15, the UAE announced the launch of a humanitarian project under Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 to supply desalinated water from Egypt to southern Gaza through a newly constructed transmission line, the largest of its kind. This emergency intervention aims to address the region's worsening water project includes a 315mm-wide, 6.7-kilometre-long pipeline linking the UAE-built desalination plant in Egypt to the displacement zone between Khan Younis and Rafah. It aims to provide about 600,000 residents with 15 litres of desalinated water per person each day, especially in light of damage to more than 80 per cent of Gaza's water facilities. Additionally, the UAE has launched several initiatives to drill and rehabilitate potable water wells, rehabilitate sewage networks in affected areas, and deliver dozens of tanker trucks carrying fresh water into the enclave.


The National
3 days ago
- The National
Hunger and heartbreak as families struggle to survive war in Gaza
Every morning, 13-year-old Mahmoud Al Mahalawi wakes up in a tent pitched beside the rubble of his family's home in the Al Saftawi neighbourhood of Gaza. Before the war, the summer months meant school holidays and time to play. Now, he says, his days revolve around 'looking for ways to keep me and my family alive'. 'I start my day thinking where I should go first, to find some water or stand in line at the tikkia [charity kitchen] so I can bring food home for my brothers,' Mahmoud told The National. He shares the responsibility for his family's survival with his father, who works whenever he can find a job. Together, they try to scrape together enough for their basic needs amid famine-like conditions created by Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid. Desperate crowds often swarm the few aid lorries allowed to enter Gaza, while hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli forces near the few food distribution sites run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. 'I've thought more than once about chasing down the aid trucks or going to the American aid centre just to get food for my family,' Mahmoud says. 'But my parents always say no. They're afraid something will happen to me.' Gazan family's relief after receiving food aid As with most families in Gaza nowadays, anything beyond basic necessities, even fruit, is out of reach because of prices inflated by scarcity and siege. Small quantities of mangoes and bananas that appeared in the markets on Monday were being sold at 200 shekels (more than $50) for 1kg of mangoes and 17 shekels for a banana. 'Sometimes I see fruit and wish I could have some. But I'd never ask my father. He can barely afford to buy us flour, let alone fruit,' Mahmoud says. 'Sometimes I feel like I just want to die. No one really feels our pain. I'm a child, just like children anywhere in the world. I should be in a summer camp, playing football, swimming – not standing in line for water or food, not living in a tent.' Like many parents in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Asr, 41, is fighting not just hunger but heartbreak. Displaced by the war from Jabalia refugee camp, he now lives in a makeshift home with his wife and four children – two boys and two girls aged between three and 15 – in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. 'Yesterday, I told my kids not to leave the house, not because of danger, but because I didn't want them to see the fruit being sold outside,' he told The National. 'If they asked me to buy some, I wouldn't be able to. I can't even meet their basic needs, like bread and flour.' However, his children saw photos on Facebook of fruit arriving in Gaza and rushed to him saying, 'Dad, the fruit is here! Please buy us some', he says. 'Honestly, the feeling of helplessness was unbearable. There's no income. And even if there were, how could I justify paying such a huge amount just for fruit when we don't have food?' For Ilham Al Asi, 38, who lost her husband in an air strike last year, the burden of survival rests on her two young sons – Ibrahim, 14, and Yahya, 10. 'I have no one in this life but my children,' Ms Al Asi told The National. 'They're the ones doing everything they can to help us survive.' Each day, Ibrahim ventures out from their home in Al Tuffah to collect firewood from bombed buildings, risking injury or worse, so his mother can cook, if there is food or flour to prepare. Yahya, meanwhile, stands in line at a charity kitchen for up to five hours each day to bring home a pot of food. 'Sometimes he leaves at nine in the morning and doesn't come back until three in the afternoon,' Ms Al Asi says. 'And what he brings back isn't even enough for two people.' She says Yahya once suffered a head injury during a crush at the food kitchen. 'We had to take him to the hospital. The crowd was so desperate. Famine in Gaza has reached an unimaginable level. People can't even secure the most basic food or clean water.' Ms Al Asi is infuriated by Israel's claims that sufficient quantities of aid are reaching Gaza. 'The occupation says it's sending aid and children's supplies to protect them from hunger. That's a lie,' she says. 'The only reality here is famine. It's killing us, children, adults, the elderly. Everyone is suffering. Everyone is dying slowly, every single day.'