As death toll rises, Gazans make life-risking journeys to seek food
Accompanied by her sister, Mazouza, the mother-of-four had to duck down and hide behind a pile of rubble on the side of the road as gunshots echoed nearby.
"You either come back carrying (food) for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud, or you go back upset (without food) and your children will cry," said Nawajha, 38, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.
"This is life, we are being slaughtered, we can't do it anymore."
In the past two days, dozens of Palestinians have also been killed by Israeli fire as they tried to get food from aid trucks brought into the enclave by the United Nations and international relief agencies, Gaza medics said.
On Thursday, medics said at least 40 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, the latest in near-daily reports of killings of people seeking food.
Twenty-eight people were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said. One of those strikes killed at least 12 people, including women and children, near a mosque in Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, they added.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on Thursday's incident.
In recent days, the Israeli military said its forces had opened fire and fired warning shots to disperse people who approached areas where troops were operating, posing a threat. It said it was reviewing reports of casualties among civilians.
Israel has been channelling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.
The Gaza health ministry said hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach GHF sites since late May.
The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent Hamas fighters from diverting aid, which Hamas denies.
There was no immediate GHF comment on Thursday's incident. On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed 3 million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.
The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and causing a hunger crisis.
The Norwegian Refugee Council warned on Thursday that more than 1 million people were without adequate shelter, saying equipment such as tents and tarpaulins had been blocked by Israel from entering since March 1.
Nawajha returned empty-handed on Wednesday from her journey to find food, flopping down exhausted on the dusty ground outside the tent in Gaza City, where she has been displaced and sheltering with her family.
She and her sister have been camping by the road for the past 20 days. They say they try to force their way into the distribution site where trucks carrying aid arrive, but are often outmuscled by men, who sometimes fight over sacks of flour coming off U.N. trucks.
"(When) there is no food, as you can see, children start crying and getting angry," said Nawajha. "When we are for three, four kilometres or more on our legs... Oh my... our feet are bruised and our shoes are torn off."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Glasgow Times
10 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Report warns Glasgow's Barlinnie prison breaches this UN rule
Prison inspectors found that overcrowding and its impacts were the' primary concerns' and warned it breaches UN rules. Ever after the early release of short-term prisoners, the average prison population at Barlinnie was 1370, which was still almost 40% above the design capacity of the Victorian era - built jail. Under the Scottish Government scheme, hundreds of prisoners were released early from jails across Scotland. Emergency legislation was passed to allow eligible prisoners, who were sentenced to less than four years in jail, to be released after 40% of their sentence, instead of 50%. Up to 390 were considered eligible under the programme. Despite releases, Barlinnie was still over capacity. (Image: newsquest) The Independent Prison Monitoring report showed the jail's population peaked at 1,468 in May 2024 and was at its lowest, 1,310 (coinciding with the final tranche of the emergency early release programme) on July 17 and 18, 2024 The inspectors said: 'Overcrowding is a national concern, though a particular issue at HMP Barlinnie.' Overcrowding led to breaches of the United Nations rules on prisoners. The report states: 'As a result of overcrowding, there was evidence of untried and convicted populations being held together in the same residential area, including occasional instances of cell sharing. 'The prison did their best to adhere to the rules, as set out by Prison Rule 16, though this was an increasing challenge due to sustained overcrowding. Housing different prisoner categories together was a breach of Mandela rules 112 & 113.' The UN Rules on minimum standards for prisons state: 'Untried prisoners shall be kept separate from convicted prisoners'. And 'Untried prisoners shall sleep singly in separate rooms, with the reservation of different local custom in respect of the climate.' (Image: newsquest) The report raised concerns about the 'antiquated infrastructure' with cells not meeting the minimum standard size of 4m² per individual. They found it was not possible for every prisoner to have a daily shower. Despite the ageing infrastructure, the inspectors found the jail was well-maintained. It said: 'Communal areas were clean and bright and there were effective means to report any issues. "The grounds were well-maintained and with hanging baskets and a landscape projects which included a raised flower bed, bird feeders, and sculpture which had been designed and crafted in the metalwork shed.' Drugs and violence also feature in the report. It stated: 'Challenges around substance use, in line with much of the Scottish prison estate, was highlighted as a concern. 'During the year, staff mentioned that there had been five violent incidents over a short period, which was unusual for their hall.' The prison monitors reported that this was 'indicative of the risks associated with sustained overcrowding'.
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
Gaza: I feel like the life I had before the war was all made up
"I don't think God intended for people in their late 20s to live with their parents," Hanya Aljamal hanging out on the balcony of the tiny apartment where she lives with her mother, father and five grown-up siblings - because it's the only place she can get any peace and years ago, 28-year-old Hanya was working as an English teacher and lived in a flat of her own. She was applying to colleges in the US to do a Master's in international development, and on course for a scholarship to pay for it. Things were going well - but life is different most days, Sunday begins with a morning coffee on the balcony, while Hanya watches her neighbour, a man in his 70s, carefully tending pots of herbs, seedlings and plants in his tidy garden, just across the road from a blown-up building."It just looks like the purest form of resistance," Hanya says. "In the middle of all this horror and uncertainty, he still finds time to grow something - and there's something absolutely beautiful about that."Hanya lives in Deir al-Balah, a town in the middle of Gaza, a 25-mile stretch of land on the south-eastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea that's been a war zone since October 2023. She has recorded an audio diary which she shared with the BBC for a radio documentary about what life is like school where she taught had to close down when the war started. Hanya has become a teacher with no students and no school, her sense of who she was slipping through her fingers."It's very hard finding purpose in this time, finding some sort of solace or meaning as your entire world falls apart." The apartment Hanya shares with her family is her fifth home since the war started. The UN estimates 90% of Gazans have been displaced by the war - many multiple times. Most Gazans now live in temporary Monday, Hanya is jolted awake in bed at 2am."There was an explosion really close by that was then followed by a second, and a third," she says, "it was so loud and very scary. I tried to soothe myself to sleep."The Israeli government says its military action in Gaza is intended to destroy the capabilities of Hamas, which describes itself as an Islamist resistance movement. It is designated a terrorist organisation by the UK, the US, Israel, and military action began after armed Palestinian groups from Gaza led by Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 251 far, the Israeli military has killed more than 56,000 people in the conflict - the majority civilians - according to Gaza's Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas. Israel doesn't currently allow international journalists to report freely from Gaza. Hanya is working for an aid organisation called Action for Humanity and spends the day at one of their projects. A group of girls wearing white T-shirts and with keffiyehs tied around their waists perform a dance and then take part in a group therapy talks about what it means to lose your home, others talk about losing their belongings, their friends, someone they love. And then one suddenly starts crying and everyone else falls silent. A teaching assistant takes the girl away to comfort her in private."And then someone tells me that she lost both parents," Hanya says. On Tuesday, Hanya is watching five colourful kites soaring in the sky from her balcony."I like kites - they're like an active act of hope," she says. "Every kite is a couple of kids down there trying to have a normal childhood in the midst of all this."Seeing kites flying makes a nice change to the drones, jets and "killing machines" Hanya is used to seeing above her apartment, she says. But later that evening, the "nightly orchestra" of nearby drones buzzing at discordant pitches begins. She describes the sound they make as "psychological torture"."Sometimes they're so loud you can't even listen to your own thoughts," she says. "They're kind of a reminder that they're there watching, waiting, ready to pounce." On Thursday morning, Hanya hears loud, consistent gunfire and wonders what it might be. Maybe theft. Maybe a turf war between families. Maybe someone defending a spends most of the day in bed. She feels dizzy every time she tries to get up and puts it down to the effect of fasting ahead of Eid al-Adha, when she's already very says the lack of control over what she eats - and the rest of her life - is having a big psychological impact."You cannot control anything - not even your thoughts, not even your wellbeing, not even who you are," she says. "It took me a while to accept the fact that I am no longer the person that I identify myself as."The school where Hanya used to teach has been destroyed, and the idea of studying abroad now seems very distant."I felt like I was gaslit," Hanya says, "like all of these things were made up. Like none of it was true." The next morning, Hanya wakes to the sound of birds chirping and the call to the first day of Eid al-Adha, when her dad would usually sacrifice a sheep and they'd share the meat with the needy and their relatives. But her family don't have the means to travel now and there's no animal to sacrifice anyway."All of Gaza's population has been not eating any sort of protein, outside canned fava beans, for three months now," she family discover that one of her cousins has been killed while trying to get aid."To be honest, I hadn't known him very well," she says, "but it's the general tragedy of someone hungry, seeking food and getting shot in the process that is quite grotesque." There have been multiple shooting incidents and hundreds of deaths reported at or near aid distribution points in recent weeks. The circumstances are disputed and difficult to verify without being able to report freely in knows at least 10 people who have lost their lives during the war. This number includes several of her students and a colleague who had got engaged a month before the war started. She was the same age as Hanya and shared her is updating her CV to remove her college professor's name. He was her referee and writing mentor - but he is dead now too."It's a huge thing when someone tells you that they see you, that they believe in you, and that they bet on you," she doesn't think she's grieved for any of these people properly, and says she feels she has to ration her emotions in case any of her close family are hurt."Grieving is a luxury many of us can't afford." Crowing cocks mark the start of another new day, and Hanya is taking in a beautiful pink and blue dawn from the balcony. She says she has developed a habit of looking up to the sky as an escape."It's very hard to find beauty in Gaza anymore. Everything is grey, or soot-covered, or destroyed," Hanya says."The one thing about the sky is that it gives you colours and a respite of beauty that Earth lacks."
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
A street in Gaza, a map of dreams, and the people desperate to live
Before it was bombed into a long grey line of rubble and dust cutting across Gaza City, Omar al-Mukhtar street was full of life – shoppers in the day, friends and families on evening outings after dark. Running from east to west through the city, this artery road is home to some of Gaza's most significant landmarks. It connects the city's historical sites to the centre of modern commercial activity and leads down towards the port, which has for centuries been crucial to life in Gaza. Heavily damaged in Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, in which 56,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the health ministry, the area around Omar al-Mukhtar is now crowded with people who have fled from parts of Gaza City which are now entirely flattened. For the repeatedly displaced people of this city, the street is where many still return, trying to bring it back to life. Here we look at some of the places that made up this main artery of Gaza City, seeing them through the eyes of those who live there, fighting to survive. Capital Mall shopping centre The Capital Mall opened its doors in 2017. It had clothing, perfume, home goods and mobile phone shops, a bookshop and food court. For Gaza's middle class youth, it was the place to hang out and be seen. Yousef Eljojo, a 21-year-old architecture student, drew the mall from memory and posted it on Instagram at the beginning of this year. You can see it in the video above. 'I try to remember the buildings, the streets, the trees – I draw what I used to live. We were never just numbers. We are people who had dreams like you, hopes to fulfil. We had warm and safe homes. 'Now, we are trying to rise again. I am studying architecture remotely, without resources like electricity or internet. I look at my papers with a burning heart, will they remain blank? Or will I colour them once again?' The conditions in Gaza have worsened significantly since he made that drawing and posted it on Instagram. 'We don't even have a single loaf of bread at home. The price of one kilo of flour is 90 shekels, which is about $26 [£20], and therefore a single loaf of bread costs $25. We're talking about a war that has been going on for nearly two years. So, those who once had thousands of dollars now have absolutely nothing,' he says. The city has become more like a jungle. It used to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We were very happy – we used to go to university, learn, go on leisure trips and night camping in open areas. We also used to have money, and life was good 'We were never used to life in tents, or chasing after a bag of flour, or standing in long lines for food distribution. We were the ones distributing food before the war. We were never used to such a miserable life. 'I don't know if I will die, or if the war will end, or if we will leave the country. But in all cases, I will be very happy.' Eljojo remembers a stationery shop called Pens & Pins where he used to get his drawing materials. The shop reopened in February and is still operating but Capital Mall itself has not survived, he says. 'It's difficult for it to operate at this stage. It needs generators that require a massive amount of fuel. It also has empty restaurants and cafes – there's nothing in them except the equipment. The building is completely shut down and no one enters it.' Islamic University of Gaza With 17,000 students, the Islamic University of Gaza was one of three large universities around Omar al-Mukhtar street. It was bombed on 10 October 2023 by the Israeli forces who posted a video of the destruction. According to the official university website, 19 buildings and 500 classrooms across the three campuses were completely destroyed. The main auditorium, which once staged joyful graduation ceremonies, is now a refuge for displaced people. Students have scattered. Aya Talb was a medical student. She has wanted to be a doctor since she was 10, when her parents were ill and didn't have the money to get the treatment they needed: 'I believed with all my heart that once I became a doctor, I would help my family's suffering.' But that happiness was short-lived. Just one week after she started her studies the war began and with it, a whole new chapter of unbearable suffering. Her home was bombed and she has been living in a tent with her family since August 2024. Talb and her family are struggling with the the current blockade as they cannot get enough food and have to bake bread using spoiled flour. What's worse is when hunger is accompanied by illness in a deadly way, with the spread of fleas, scabies and contaminated water, all while food is completely absent She still managed to complete a full year of medical school under bombardment. 'Countless times, I studied while lying flat on the ground under a tent roof, terrified of the bullets flying around us. In addition to the unbearable hunger we experienced, I walked hundreds of metres just to find an internet connection so I could attend lectures and take exams. I completed that year as if I were carving through stone with my bare nails.' She says she hasn't been able to register for a second year of online study because she doesn't have the tuition fees. 'My family and I are forced to prioritise using our limited money to buy spoiled and infested flour, to purchase firewood so we can cook, and – worse yet – to pay for transportation just to move from one place to another during forced displacement. 'You might laugh at me, but honestly, what's worse than hunger was having to run from one street to another just to find internet access, and then checking what each professor had posted for their course. The internet access lasted only three to four hours for a fee, so I would download the lectures from YouTube and watch them later in my tent, using a small phone that survived the bombing of our home.' Abdullah Salama lives in Rimal, Gaza City. He earned a bachelor's degree in maths in 2020 and was pursuing a master's in data science when the war started. He couldn't continue after the university was bombed multiple times. He remembers the many hours he used to spend in its beautiful gardens and says the university was ranked 68th globally in terms of green space. I was passionate about those gardens and used to spend hours there – it felt like a second home to me. When the university was bombed, I grieved just as I did for my own home that was destroyed In July 2024 he resumed his studies, getting online where and when he can. He is in the research phase of his degree, but says some of his friends are watching lectures and submitting assignments and exams online. He walks up to 10km a day to find places that offer electricity generated through the solar panels that were installed before the war. The power is unstable and unreliable. 'We rely on alternative power sources such as solar energy. The internet is also very slow and unstable, which makes it extremely difficult for students to continue their education. This is just one part of the daily struggles we face, alongside finding water, food, and enduring many other hardships. Still, we continue to pursue our education.' The Families Bakery The popular Families Bakery chain used to post photos on its Instagram account of counters full of bread, pastries, cakes and pizza. Treats for every occasion: Ramadan, graduation, breakfast, nights out with the family. The posts stopped in October 2023, and the shops took on greater significance as one of the World Food Programme (WFP)-subsidised bakeries that fed people during the war and the recent blockade. During the brief ceasefire from January to March this year, the bakery received some flour from the WFP and sold it for less than a dollar. Photographer Majdi Fathi, who has been documenting the daily struggles of life during the war on his Instagram account and for international media, took the video above. Many children and people stand in a queue to buy the bread for half a dollar then sell it to others for two dollars Fathi had been displaced from Gaza City, but when the ceasefire happened, he returned alongside thousands of others. 'My house was destroyed during the war in the neighbourhood of Shujaiya and now I am having to rent a house.' Throughout the war, keeping bakeries open has been a battle. People rely heavily on bread for sustenance and bakery ovens are often one of the only places families short of fuel can cook. The Families Bakery had to shut down again after the closure of all crossings into Gaza in March stopped supplies stock of flour, yeast and cooking gas. When aid convoys were allowed back in after more than 80 days of Israeli blockade in mid-May, some of the bakeries resumed bread production, but according to a WFP report, 'due to the lack of food and desperation of the population, situations of insecurity forced the bakeries to close'. Abdel Nasser al-Ajrami, who owns the Families Bakery and is the head of the bakery owners' association in Gaza, told The New Arab on 27 May that, before the war: ' …about one hundred and forty bakeries were operated, but the Israeli army destroyed about 90 and left only 50. Around 25 bakeries are working with the WFP, and we have no news about dozens of them'. He also told the UN: 'The situation is extremely dangerous because people have no alternatives. They can't bake because they don't have electricity, energy, gas or fuel. The situation is extremely tough. Ask any citizen, and you will find out that they want to cry because of the tough situation they are living in: 'I will die of hunger alongside my children.' They have no alternative for bakeries.' Falafel Sousi Before the war, a short walk away from the bakery, one shekel (about 20p) could have bought someone a falafel sandwich at one of Falafel Sousi's several restaurants across Gaza City, including a couple on Omar al-Mukhtar street. 'The heart of Gaza City, which had pulsated with life, was now lifeless,' says a Palestinian influencer with the TikTok handle mta3mgaza. They used to uploaded videos reviewing restaurants in Gaza, but says Omar al-Moukhtar street, once made vibrant by the restaurants that lined it, is now decimated. Even the animals were dead and lying in the streets. The smell of death rose up from where bodies could not be retrieved from the rubble Majdi Fathi photographed a branch of the shop as it attempted to reopen during the brief ceasefire. He found a throng of people queueing for a sandwich even though the prices had soared, with falafel costing about five times as much as before. 'The crowd of people jostling at Falafel Sousi was because of the closure of the crossings for 52 days, when no food or vegetables were coming in. Gaza is empty of food, whatever is available is very expensive,' says Fathi. Today, the shop might open for a few days then has to close again because of the lack of resources. 'Falafel is now five shekels because chickpeas have become expensive and the sellers need firewood to cook because there is no gas supply,' says Fathi. Omari mosque The 7th-century Omari mosque, known as the Great Mosque, is Gaza's oldest and largest. Only metres from it sits one of the world's oldest active churches. In their vicinity are a gold market and traditional bathhouse, both centuries old. These buildings formed part of Gaza's old city and are the most significant cultural landmarks of a city that, contrary to the struggles of recent years, was historically wealthy because of its port's strategic location. The image of Omari mosque's minaret cut down by bombing in December 2023 hurt many Gazans – a terrible example of cultural history being destroyed. Once spanning an area of about 1,100 sq metres, the mosque's usable space has been reduced to just 300 sq metres due to damage caused by Israeli attacks. So when the ceasefire began and allowed many people to return to Gaza City, the youth began cleaning up the rubble so that prayers could begin again and by Ramadan they had constructed a temporary hall for nightly evening prayers. 'It was business as usual for Ramadan in Omari, the mosque was filled with worshippers remembering God,' says a member of the team's management. They also had plans to accommodate more worshippers during the last 10 days of Ramadan but those were put on hold when Israel ended the ceasefire and began a new military operation. Port of Gaza In the mornings, Gaza City's port would be busy with fishers heading out to sea and returning with whatever they could catch from within the confines of an Israel-imposed fishing zone to sell at the city's fish market. In the evening, families would arrive with flasks of tea and snacks to sit down and look out to sea. For many, the sea offered a form of escape from more than a decade of blockade in Gaza that prevented them from travelling. Even now, Gaza City resident Bader al-Zaharna returns to the coast when he needs a break but the view is very different, he says: I look at the beach and there are tents everywhere – it's a reminder of what's happened to us The port has become a makeshift refuge for thousands of displaced Palestinians that have sought refuge there and are facing harsh conditions living in tents without electricity or clean water. More than 90% of Gaza's fishing boats, fishers' storage and equipment have been destroyed. At least 4,500 fishers and 1,500 workers have lost their only source of income. They are also at risk: at least 202 people working in the fishing industry have been killed, 50 of them at sea. Fisher Zaki al-Najjar, who lost his brother in an Israeli attack, gave an account to UN officials: 'Every day we go out to sea, we stare death in the face. We bring back fish stained with blood, just to feed our children. Despite everything, we will never give up the sea. This is our livelihood, and we will hold on to it at any cost.'
