
Starvation and despair in Gaza: ‘Aid is just another injustice'
Without much call for repairs or alterations during wartime, the tailor, 62, has been short of work for much of the past two years. Now he, and the 13 members of his immediate family, are among the two million Palestinians who are chronically short of food.
'Before he leaves in the morning, he leaves one small piece of bread for his daughter, that's all we have, then he goes to work,' said his sister, Soha Khader, 30, from his bedside. 'And what does tailoring bring in these days? Fifty shekels [£11] a day, if anything. Even when flour was cheaper, he couldn't always afford it. How's he supposed to manage now?'
Soha ventured out to look for flour herself, but even though she had money to spend, there was nothing. 'Not even at double or triple the price. No vendors,' she added. 'We're not only suffering from the siege and starvation, even the vendors have turned on us.'
Aid agencies warned of new levels of desperation and hunger among the territory's population on Monday, even as Israel began a new ground and aid offensive in central Gaza, where it is thought Hamas holds the remaining hostages captured at the start of the war on October 7, 2023.
Having deprived himself of food to feed his family, Khader was being treated with intravenous fluids less than 10 miles away from Deir el Balah, the scene of the latest Israeli advance. His condition is far from unique.
Also being treated in hospital was Mohammed al-Sweirki, 42, who said he hadn't eaten in a week. 'I'm weak, dizzy from hunger, and today I came to al-Shifa hospital to let them put me on an IV and give me medicine just so I could stand on my feet,' he said.
'I used to weigh 123 kilos. Today, I weigh 72. I lost all that weight in just a few months because of hunger. We're exhausted. Either humanitarian aid enters, or someone finds us a solution, or we all die.'
On Sunday, a three-month-old baby from Khan Yunis died of severe malnutrition and dehydration, according to his doctors at the Nasser Hospital in the south. Dr Fidaa al-Nadi, a paediatrician, said 73 children had died this way in the past month and many mothers were unable to breastfeed because of poor nutrition.
Israel says it has allowed in over a thousand tonnes of baby formula, and there are no bans on the product. However, supplies that are are let in pass through many hands. The Israeli military accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid and selling it for profit.
Aid organisations including Action Aid, Save the Children and UN agencies maintain that child malnutrition is climbing to alarming levels.
Among the grieving mothers was Alaa al-Najjar, whose infant son died after being readmitted to hospital suffering from dehydration and malnutrition shortly after being discharged from an intensive care ward. 'I had nothing to feed him except fennel tea and water. No milk, no nutrition,' she said.
On Monday, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said more than 59,000 Palestinians had been killed and more than 142,000 injured in Israel's military campaign following the October 7 attacks in which 1,200 Israelis died.
After 85 people died while trying to find food on Sunday, Britain joined 25 nations in condemning the Israeli government's aid delivery model, which it said was 'dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity'.
A statement added: 'We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Further bloodshed serves no purpose.'
Israel rejected the joint statement 'as it is disconnected to reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas'.
Civilians have been killed almost daily while trying to obtain food or supply packages at designated aid convoy delivery points, which are administered by US contracts and guarded by Israeli forces.
Having waited for hours along with hundreds of others at an aid point for trucks containing flour to disgorge their contents, Waleed Abu Hatab, a father of seven forced to flee his home in Gaza City, described his relief at finally obtaining some. 'I ran, pushed through the crowd, grabbed a sack of flour, and now I'm on my way to my tent,' he said. 'I know it might have looked chaotic, but hunger is deadly. It's been over 15 days since many of us last tasted bread.'
He added that 1kg of flour cost the equivalent of £30, a price few can afford. If they manage to grab a bag, it will only last for 15 days, even if rationed to bake 12 small loaves a day.
One street vendor said prices of other basic commodities had soared. 'There's outrageous exploitation by merchants who sell essential food items like sugar, flour and rice. Prices have gone beyond imagination. Today, one kilo of sugar costs 300 shekels, while before the war we used to buy three entire sacks of sugar for the same price,' he said.
Such is the scarcity that thefts are on the rise, Mahmoud Abu Haseera, 67, from west Gaza, said. His house was largely destroyed in bombing. 'Recently, traders have started hiding their goods. They're afraid of hungry people attacking them or looting their supplies. And they know they're exploiting people's needs, so they're scared and hide the products to avoid being robbed,' he added.
Soha summed up their plight. 'There's no order, no system,' she said of the aid deliveries. 'The strongest survive and the most desperate push through. Many women, the sick, the elderly, they can't reach it. They have no chance. Aid is turning into another injustice.'
The latest intensive bombing and the entry of tanks into Deir el Balah was condemned on Monday by both Israelis and Palestinians as mass evacuation orders sent thousands more refugees to the overcrowded and unfed south.
Families of hostages are afraid that the new operation endangers those being held, who are thought to be with Hamas gunmen underneath the city. Israel's army has yet to comment on the offensive.
'The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages, both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn't know what was at stake,' the Hostages and Missing Families forum said in a statement.
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
One in five children in Gaza is malnourished, UN aid agency says
One in five children in Gaza City is malnourished and cases are increasing every day, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) a statement issued on Thursday, Unrwa Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini cited a colleague telling him: "People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses."More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups have also warned of mass starvation - pressing for governments to take which controls the entry of all supplies into Gaza, says there is no siege and blames Hamas for any cases of malnutrition. The UN, however, has warned that the level of aid getting into Gaza is "a trickle" and the hunger crisis in the territory "has never been so dire".In his statement on Thursday, Lazzarini said "more than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger"."Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don't get the treatment they urgently need," he added, pleading for Israel to "allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza".On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said a large proportion of the population of Gaza was "starving"."I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation - and it's man-made," the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. In northern Gaza, Hanaa Almadhoun, 40, said local markets are often without food and other supplies. "If they do exist then they come at exorbitant prices that no ordinary person can afford," she told the BBC over WhatsApp. She said flour was expensive and difficult to secure, and that people have sold "gold and personal belongings" to afford it. The mother-of-three said "every new day brings a new challenge" as people search for "something edible". "With my own eyes, I've seen children rummaging through the garbage in search of food scraps," she added. During a visit to Israeli troops in Gaza on Wednesday, Israel's President Isaac Herzog insisted his country was providing humanitarian aid "according to international law".But Tahani Shehada, an aid worker in Gaza, said people "are just trying to survive hour-by-hour"."Even simple things like cooking [and] taking a shower have become luxuries," she said. "I have a baby. He's eight months old. He doesn't know what fresh fruit tastes like," she added. Israel stopped aid deliveries to Gaza in early March following a two-month ceasefire. The blockade was partially eased after nearly two months, but food, fuel and medicine shortages with the US, established a new aid system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). According to the UN human rights office, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food aid over the past two says at least 766 of them have been killed in the vicinity of one of the GHF's four distribution centres, which are operated by US private security contractors and are located inside Israeli military 288 people have been reported killed near UN and other aid has accused Hamas of instigating the chaos near the aid sites. It says its troops have only fired warning shots and that they do not intentionally shoot GHF says the UN is using "false" figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Najah, a 19-year-old widow sheltering in a hospital in Gaza, said she fears she would "get shot" if she travelled to aid distribution site."I hope they bring us something to eat and drink. We die of hunger with nothing to eat or drink. We live in tents. We are finished off," Najah told the BBC. A doctor working in Gaza with a UK medical charity, Dr Aseel, said Gaza was not close to famine, but already "living it". "My husband went once [to an aid distribution point] and twice and then got shot and that was it," she said. "If we are to die from hunger, let it be. The path to aid is the path to death."Abu Alaa, a market seller in Gaza, said he and his children "go to bed hungry every night". "We are not alive. We are dead. We are pleading with the whole world to intervene and save us," he added. Walaa Fathi, who is eight months pregnant with her third child, said Gazans are "experiencing a catastrophe and a famine that no one could have imagined". "I hope that my baby stays in my womb and I don't have to give birth in these difficult circumstances," she told the BBC from Deir al-Balah.


The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
82 children starve to death in Gaza amid Israeli aid restrictions
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BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
He went to get aid and didn't come back - stories of people killed in Gaza
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