‘We want the fear to end': a Palestinian widow relives the trauma of loss and struggle for survival
In the two months since Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza, stopping food, medicine, fuel and anything else from entering the devastated territory, Ghalia's 'cupboard' has slowly diminished.
There have been better days, when Ghalia has received a cash distribution from an NGO and has been able to buy fresh vegetables or fruit on the market, or been given a kilogram of flour by a relative or friend.
But prices have risen steadily as the blockade has gone on and basic foodstuffs become scarcer. Sugar that once cost a dollar a kilo now costs 20 times that. A sack of old, poor-quality flour costs far more money than Ghalia can muster. The bakeries run by the World Food Programme shut down weeks ago, all out of flour or fuel. The kitchens that hand out nearly 1 million meals every day in Gaza have limited supplies left. The warehouses of the UN are empty. The family has not eaten meat or dairy products for months.
'We are trying as much as possible to stretch our food since the crossings closed … We now eat just one or two meals a day. I divide the bread among my children just to curb their hunger. I try to eat less so there's enough for them,' Ghalia said.
Every day since the ceasefire definitively collapsed six weeks ago, the sound of airstrikes and shelling has been clearly audible in the small tented encampment in farmland near the devastated town of Beit Lahia where Ghalia and her family have pitched their tent.
This terrifies her. In December 2023, her husband, Hamza, was killed in an Israeli drone strike along with an uncle and a cousin as they searched for food in the ruins of their former home.
'I didn't scream or fall apart when I found them. I thanked God that I was able to find and bury them. The hospital refused to receive or shroud them, saying they were already decomposing and there were no burial shrouds. So we wrapped them in blankets and buried them ourselves,' Ghalia, 32, remembered.
'My children cried every day, asking to see their father. The older two [now 10 and nine] wept constantly, wanting to see him again. I kept comforting them, saying we'll reunite with him in heaven.'
Last week, Ghalia's sister was hit in the leg by a stray bullet while she was cooking beside the tent.
Every day her eldest son, 10-year-old Hossam, heads out into the surrounding wasteland to search for firewood. There is no other fuel, with no cooking gas available and benzene supplies so low that two-thirds of Gaza's remaining battered fleet of ambulances have been immobilised and only a third of generators in the territory are working.
'If he is just a little late coming back, I panic. I cannot lose a son as well as my husband. But we have to cook somehow so I have to send him off. He is only 10 but like an adult now with all his duties and worries.'
Her daughter Jinan, 9, has recurrent nightmares about explosions and scattered body parts.
'I miss my old life so much. I miss my father – his voice and his smell. He used to take us for kebabs at the weekend. Now, there's nothing to buy in the markets. Water we get from the nearby school or from water trucks that come to the camp. My older brother and I carry it to our tent,' she said.
'I miss school so much. My mother told me that when I grow up, I will become a teacher because I love learning, and I hope I succeed in that … All I fear now is losing one of my siblings. I have nightmares in which I see people being killed, and lots of blood.'
About 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children have been identified across Gaza, including 1,600 cases of severe acute malnutrition, since the start of 2025, the UN said in a report last week.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Gaza, said the humanitarian system in the territory was collapsing.
'We just have a few days of supplies left. Each day is worse than the one before,' Shawa said.
Israeli officials justify the blockade on Gaza with claims that Hamas routinely steals aid, distributing it to its fighters or selling it to raise vital funds. Aid officials in Gaza deny any widespread theft of aid in recent months, though say looting is on the increase since hostilities recommenced 'due to the desperate humanitarian situation'.
The war in Gaza was triggered by a surprise attack launched by Hamas into Israel in October 2023, in which militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 hostages. Israeli officials say one aim of the blockade is to pressure Hamas to release the 59 hostages who remain in Gaza, more than half of whom are thought to be dead.
According to the ministry of health in Gaza, between 22 and 30 April, 437 Palestinians were killed and 1,023 were injured. In all, 52,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war, including more than 2,300 since Israel renewed its offensive in mid-March after reneging on a promise to move to a second phase of the fragile ceasefire which came into force in January.
'We just want to live in safety. We want the fear to end, the war to stop, life to return to how it used to be. We want our homes back,' Ghalia said, then turned back to counting her dwindling supplies. On Friday, her flour will run out, leaving just the beans and the packet of lentils.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Why not enough food is reaching people in Gaza even after Israel eased its blockade
International outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths have pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza Strip. This week, Israel paused fighting in parts of Gaza and airdropped food. But aid groups and Palestinians say the changes have only been incremental and are not enough to reverse what food experts say is a ' worst-case scenario of famine' unfolding in the war-ravaged territory. The new measures have brought an uptick in the number of aid trucks entering Gaza. But almost none of it reaches U.N. warehouses for distribution. Instead, nearly all the trucks are stripped of their cargo by crowds that overwhelm them on the roads as they drive from the borders. The crowds are a mix of Palestinians desperate for food and gangs armed with knives, axes or pistols who loot the goods to then hoard or sell. Many have also been killed trying to grab the aid. Witnesses say Israeli troops often open fire on crowds around the aid trucks, and hospitals have reported hundreds killed or wounded. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots to control crowds or at people who approach its forces. The alternative food distribution system run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has also been marred by violence. International airdrops of aid have resumed. But aid groups say airdrops deliver only a fraction of what trucks can supply. Also, many parcels have landed in now-inaccessible areas that Palestinians have been told to evacuate, while others have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim out to retrieve drenched bags of flour. Here's a look at why the aid isn't being distributed: A lack of trust The U.N. says that longstanding restrictions on the entry of aid have created an unpredictable environment, and that while a pause in fighting might allow more aid in, Palestinians are not confident aid will reach them. 'This has resulted in many of our convoys offloaded directly by starving, desperate people as they continue to face deep levels of hunger and are struggling to feed their families,' said Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. 'The only way to reach a level of confidence is by having a sustained flow of aid over a period of time,' she said. Israel blocked food entirely from entering Gaza for 2 ½ months starting in March. Since it eased the blockade in late May, it allowed in a trickle of aid trucks for the U.N., about 70 a day on average, according to official Israeli figures. That is far below the 500-600 trucks a day that U.N. agencies say are needed — the amount that entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year. Much of the aid is stacked up just inside the border in Gaza because U.N. trucks could not pick it up. The U.N says that was because of Israeli military restrictions on its movements and because of the lawlessness in Gaza. Israel has argued that it is allowing sufficient quantities of goods into Gaza and tried to shift the blame to the U.N. 'More consistent collection and distribution by U.N. agencies and international organizations = more aid reaching those who need it most in Gaza,' the Israeli military agency in charge of aid coordination, COGAT, said in a statement this week. With the new measures this week, COGAT, says 220-270 truckloads a day were allowed into Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that the U.N. was able to pick up more trucks, reducing some of the backlog at the border. Aid missions still face 'constraints' Cherevko said there have been 'minor improvements' in approvals by the Israeli military for its movements and some 'reduced waiting times' for trucks along the road. But she said the aid missions are 'still facing constraints.' Delays of military approval still mean trucks remain idle for long periods, and the military still restricts the routes that the trucks can take onto a single road, which makes it easy for people to know where the trucks are going, U.N officials say. Antoine Renard, who directs the World Food Program's operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, said Wednesday that it took nearly 12 hours to bring in 52 trucks on a 10-kilometer (6 mile) route. 'While we're doing everything that we can to actually respond to the current wave of starvation in Gaza, the conditions that we have are not sufficient to actually make sure that we can break that wave,' he said. Aid workers say the changes Israel has made in recent days are largely cosmetic. 'These are theatrics, token gestures dressed up as progress,' said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam's policy lead for Israel and the Palestinian territories. 'Of course, a handful of trucks, a few hours of tactical pauses and raining energy bars from the sky is not going to fix irreversible harm done to an entire generation of children that have been starved and malnourished for months now,' she said. Breakdown of law and order As desperation mounts, Palestinians are risking their lives to get food, and violence is increasing, say aid workers. Muhammad Shehada, a political analyst from Gaza who is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said aid retrieval has turned into the survival of the fittest. 'It's a Darwin dystopia, the strongest survive,' he said. A truck driver said Wednesday that he has driven food supplies four times from the Zikim crossing on Gaza's northern border. Every time, he said, crowds a kilometer long (0.6 miles) surrounded his truck and took everything on it after he passed the checkpoint at the edge of the Israeli military-controlled border zones. He said some were desperate people, while others were armed. He said that on Tuesday, for the first time, some in the crowd threatened him with knives or small arms. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety. Ali al-Derbashi, another truck driver, said that during one trip in July armed men shot the tires, stole everything, including the diesel and batteries and beat him. 'If people weren't starving, they wouldn't resort to this,' he said. Israel has said it has offered the U.N. armed escorts. The U.N. has refused, saying it can't be seen to be working with a party to the conflict – and pointing to the reported shootings when Israeli troops are present. Uncertainty and humiliation Israel hasn't given a timeline for how long the measures it implemented this week will continue, heightening uncertainty and urgency among Palestinians to seize the aid before it ends. Palestinians say the way it's being distributed, including being dropped from the sky, is inhumane. 'This approach is inappropriate for Palestinians, we are humiliated,' said Rida, a displaced woman. Momen Abu Etayya said he almost drowned because his son begged him to get aid that fell into the sea during an aid drop. 'I threw myself in the ocean to death just to bring him something,' he said. 'I was only able to bring him three biscuit packets'. ___
The Independent
4 days ago
- The Independent
Gangs and merchants sell food aid in Gaza, where Israel's offensive has shattered security
Since Israel's offensive led to a security breakdown in Gaza that has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving Palestinians, much of the limited aid entering is being hoarded by gangs and merchants and sold at exorbitant prices. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of flour has run as high as $60 in recent days, a kilogram of lentils up to $35. That is beyond the means of most residents in the territory, which experts say is at risk of famine and where people are largely reliant on savings 21 months into the Israel- Hamas war. Israel 's decision this weekend to facilitate more aid deliveries — under international pressure — has lowered prices somewhat but has yet to be fully felt on the ground. Bags of flour in markets often bear U.N. logos, while other packaging has markings indicating it came from the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — all originally handed out for free. It's impossible to know how much is being diverted, but neither group is able to track who receives its aid. In the melees surrounding aid distributions in recent weeks, residents say the strong were best positioned to come away with food. Mohammed Abu Taha, who lives in a tent with his wife and child near the city of Rafah, said organized gangs of young men are always at the front of crowds when he visits GHF sites. 'It's a huge business,' he said. Every avenue for aid is beset by chaos The U.N. says up to 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, aid groups and media outlets say their own staffers are going hungry, and Gaza's Health Ministry says dozens of Palestinians have died from hunger-related causes in the last three weeks. When the U.N. gets Israeli permission to distribute aid, its convoys are nearly always attacked by armed gangs or overwhelmed by hungry crowds in the buffer zone controlled by the military. The U.N.'s World Food Program said last week it will only be able to safely deliver aid to the most vulnerable once internal security is restored — likely only under a ceasefire. 'In the meantime, given the urgent need for families to access food, WFP will accept hungry populations taking food from its trucks, as long as there is no violence,' spokesperson Abeer Etifa said. In the alternative delivery system operated by GHF, an American contractor, Palestinians often run a deadly gantlet. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops while seeking food since May, mainly near the GHF sites, according to the U.N. human rights office, witnesses and local health officials. The military says it has only fired warning shots when people approach its forces, while GHF says its security contractors have only used pepper spray or fired in the air on some occasions to prevent stampedes. 'You have to be strong and fast' A man in his 30s, who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisal, said he had visited GHF sites about 40 times since they opened and nearly always came back with food. He sold most of it to merchants or other people in order to buy other necessities for his family. Heba Jouda, who has visited the sites many times, said armed men steal aid as people return with it and merchants also offer to buy it. 'To get food from the American organization, you have to be strong and fast," she said. Footage shot by Palestinians at GHF sites and shared broadly shows chaotic scenes, with crowds of men racing down fenced-in corridors and scrambling to grab boxes off the ground. GHF says it has installed separate lanes for women and children and is ramping up programs to deliver aid directly to communities. The U.N.'s deliveries also often devolve into deadly violence and chaos, with crowds of thousands rapidly overwhelming trucks in close proximity to Israeli troops. The U.N. does not accept protection from Israel, saying it prefers to rely on community support. The Israeli military did not respond to emails seeking comment about the reselling of aid. Israel denies allowing looters to operate in areas it controls and accuses Hamas of prolonging the war by not surrendering. 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. The situation changed dramatically in March For much of the war, U.N. agencies were able to safely deliver aid, despite Israeli restrictions and occasional attacks and theft. Hamas-led police guarded convoys and went after suspected looters and merchants who resold aid. During a ceasefire earlier this year, Israel allowed up to 600 aid trucks to enter daily. There were no major disruptions in deliveries, and food prices were far lower. The U.N. said it had mechanisms in place to prevent any organized diversion of aid. But Israel says Hamas was siphoning it off, though it has provided no evidence of widespread theft. That all changed in March, when Israel ended the ceasefire and halted all imports, including food. Israel seized large parts of Gaza in what it said was a tactic to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages abducted in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. As the Hamas-run police vanished from areas under Israeli control, local tribes and gangs — some of which Israel says it supports — took over, residents say. Israel began allowing a trickle of aid to enter in May. GHF was set up that month with the stated goal of preventing Hamas from diverting aid. Since then, Israel has allowed an average of about 70 trucks a day, compared to the 500-600 the U.N. says are needed. The military said Saturday it would allow more trucks in — 180 entered Sunday — and international airdrops have resumed, which aid organizations say are largely ineffective. Meanwhile, food distribution continues to be plagued by chaos and violence, as seen near GHF sites or around U.N. trucks. Even if Israel pauses its military operations during the day, it's unclear how much the security situation will improve. With both the U.N. and GHF, it's possible Hamas members are among the crowds. In response to questions from The Associated Press, GHF acknowledged that but said its system prevents the organized diversion of aid. 'The real concern we are addressing is not whether individual actors manage to receive food, but whether Hamas is able to systematically control aid flows. At GHF sites, they cannot,' it said. Hamas has denied stealing aid. It's unclear if it's involved in the trade in aid, but its fighters would be taking a major risk by operating in a coordinated way in Israeli military zones that U.N. trucks pass through and where GHF sites are located. The UN says the only solution is a ceasefire U.N. officials have called on Israel to fully lift the blockade and flood Gaza with food. That would reduce the incentive for looting by ensuring enough for everyone and driving down prices. Another ceasefire would include a major increase in aid and the release of Israeli hostages, but talks have stalled. Hamas started the war when its fighters stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 hostages. Fifty captives are still being held in Gaza. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and is run by medical professionals. Israel has disputed its figures without providing its own. ___ ___
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
Israel's new 10-hour military pause in parts of Gaza starts but UN says it is not enough to stave off famine – Middle East crisis live
Update: Date: 2025-07-28T07:40:18.000Z Title: Israel's new 10-hour military pause in parts of Gaza begins but UN warns measures are not enough to 'stave off famine' Content: We are continuing our live coverage of Israel's war on Gaza. Stick with us throughout the day as we provide the latest updates. Responding to a global outcry provoked by reports and images of widespread starvation and malnutrition in Gaza, the Israeli military said yesterday that it had began a 'tactical pause' in the densely populated areas of Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi to 'increase the scale of humanitarian aid' into the strip. It said the pause would be repeated every day from 10am to 8pm local time until further notice. Today is due to bring the second of these pauses. Soon after the first humanitarian pause began yesterday, Israel carried out an airstrike on a building in Gaza City, killing a woman and her four children. Israel allowed a limited amount of airdrops into Gaza to resume over the weekend but charities have warned the amount is totally inadequate for the population's needs. Israel, Jordan and the UAE all parachuted aid into the territory that has been devasted by relentless Israeli bombardments. Israel has said humanitarian corridors would be established to facilitate the entry of UN aid trucks into Gaza, though the number of trucks that will be allowed in was not specified. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher welcomed Israel's pledge to start daily humanitarian pauses, but said much more has to be done to alleviate the health crisis engulfing the territory. In a statement published yesterday, he said: We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys. Some movement restrictions appear to have been eased today, with initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads were collected. This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis.
