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Irish Examiner
27-06-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Family in Gaza has no 'flour or clean water, basic necessities', says Cork chef
A soft thud as someone collapses on the street from starvation is an increasingly common sound in Gaza. Cork chef and University College Cork student Habib Al Ostaz's family now hear that sound frequently, with war-weary people suddenly crumpling from starvation and increasingly from thirst. His father narrowly escaped being killed or maimed when a 'death market' — where aid was being delivered by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — was bombed by Israeli forces. They never returned for much-needed aid. His family's voices are now so weak they are barely audible. 'I avoid calling them sometimes now. It's really hard to hear their voices. I sometimes can't handle it, so I chat in messages instead,' Habib told the Irish Examiner. 'I have no words to support them. People often have not eaten in three days An acute water shortage is also a huge problem. Children there are now dying of thirst, the UN said this week. Disease is also rampant due to a block on water distribution, leading to serious problems with sanitation and sewerage. Fuel for trucks to distribute water across the territory has not been allowed into the region. Israel blocked all supplies from early March to the end of May and continues to impose restrictions, rights groups say, and the territory of more than 2m people is suffering from famine-like conditions. More than 56,077 people, including many children, have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. People carrying aid parcels, walk along the Salah al-Din Rd near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, used by food-seeking Palestinians to reach an aid distributution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Picture: Eyad Baba/AFP Habib's family is subsisting on lentils, eating one meagre meal every two days. They have no flour, so they ground the lentils to make a flour substitute for bread. It causes intense pain in their stomachs, but they have no other option for food. They have also ground down animal food to make a flour for bread. They laughed that they eat animal food now. It hurts me so much When they can, they make 'coffee' out of chickpeas. 'Their voices sound completely different now. They're so weak. 'Imagine if you haven't eaten in a week, no proper protein, no fresh carbohydrates. It's like a car with no fuel. 'It's not fair. Here we have so much, but they don't even have flour or clean water, basic human necessities.' As most infrastructure has been bombed in Gaza, there is no water supply or electricity. His family walk 500m every day to get a supply of somewhat dirty water for the day. More than 500 people have been killed by Israeli fire at these aid distribution points since the start of last month, and almost 3,800 were wounded, according to figures issued by the Gazan health ministry. Security guards ride aboard trucks carrying humanitarian aid in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Wednesday. Picture: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images Habib's father escaped a bombing by seconds at one two weeks ago. 'I warned my brother not to go there,' Habib said. 'My dad went once. He walked for four or five kilometres to get there with his friends and neighbours. 'Bombs started falling when they were sitting there waiting for the aid trucks. My dad fled. When he went back, he saw the place where he had been sitting was bombed. More than 50 people were killed there that day. He knew some of them. People know it's too dangerous to go, but they have no choice. They have no water or food, so they're going to die anyway His family has remained in their home in North Gaza despite an evacuation order. 'They know it's dangerous, but they have nowhere else to go,' Habib said. His family moved south as refugees under previous evacuation orders, but those areas were still attacked. 'Nowhere is safe in Gaza,' Habib said. A neighbour's home was bombed this week — killing all 20 people inside, many of them children. Some were refugees from another part of Gaza who went to seek shelter with relatives. One was Habib's age and he knew them to see around the area since he was a child. More than 70 of Habib's friends and relatives have been killed since the bloody conflict erupted. Many of his school friends are now dead. Palestinian women mourn the death of loved ones, killed during overnight Israeli strikes, outside the morgue of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on June 26, 2025. Picture: Omar Al-Qatta/AFP) His mother was warned to leave the home as a large building just 10m away was about to be targeted by airstrikes in recent days. 'She left and it was bombed five minutes later,' Habib said. Their home was also damaged in the blast. It has already been hit multiple times, but the family feels forced to stay and try to repair it. Outside is a sea of mangled buildings, some pulverised, others half collapsed, large concrete slabs teetering at alarming angles over piles of dust and debris. His father was walking down a nearby street when an Israeli intelligence agent called his mobile phone, asking him to remove a woman who was still in a building that was about to be bombed. 'He could see exactly where my father was and told him where to go,' Habib said. He got the woman out and the building was bombed 'Israel knows everything about us, they have our phone numbers, they know our underwear size.' Palestinians search for usable items in the rubble of heavily damaged and collapsed buildings after Israeli attacks on Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on June 26, 2025. Picture: Saeed MMT Jaras/Anadolu via Getty Images Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the EU's failure to reach a unified stance on the Gazan humanitarian crisis was 'a huge stain'. Europe will lose its credibility unless it unifies to end the blockade on the strip to get urgently-needed aid to the people of Gaza, he said this week in Brussels. On Wednesday, draft legislation was published which would ban the sale of Israeli goods produced in occupied Palestinian territories in Ireland. However, it did not include any reference to services also being banned. The Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 draft will now be sent for pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee. Read More Colin Sheridan: Giving up on Gaza now is a surrender to immorality that will shame our children
Irish Examiner
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
'My family are literally starving': Palestinian in Cork on plight in Gaza
Habib Al Ostaz's family has not eaten in two days. Small portions of lentils and rice are all they can intermittently access since Israel stopped all food, humanitarian aid, and other supplies entering Gaza on March 2. Even the flour has now run out. They are in their bomb-damaged home in the north of the beleaguered strip, trying to repair it amid rubble from the surrounding flattened homes where neighbours once lived. However, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fresh threat this week of a 'forceful entry into Gaza', sending thousands of soldiers to seize territory and push Palestinians down to the south, may force Habib's family to leave again. Habib's family already subsisted as refugees in the south since Israel's bombardment of Gaza began in October 2023. They lived with thousands of others in a UN school before that area was attacked. They then fled to a relative's house, but that was full so his parents, four brothers, and one sister lived in tents with bombs detonating close to their flimsy canvas walls. More than 52,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since the conflict began, the Gazan authorities estimate. However, the dizzying levels of damage to homes and infrastructure may make it difficult to fully account for all the bodies trapped and decaying beneath the endless piles of deadly rubble. The Al Ostaz family home in North Gaza was destroyed during Israel's bombardment of the region. Habib speaks to his family every two days now, once they can charge their phones on car batteries. There is no electricity. Two days is also the frequency at which the family can now get one small meal. 'I can't express my feelings at the moment,' Habib told the Irish Examiner. I'm trying to avoid thinking too much about it because I couldn't change anything Habib spoke to this newspaper hours before giving a presentation in University College Cork, where he is studying for a qualification in youth and community work. Every time he speaks to his family, they sound very hungry and there's very little he can do for them. He previously told the Irish Examiner that he has listened to his severely weakened father plead for help for the family over the phone as bombs detonate nearby. 'Your family are about to die, to be killed, and you're not able to help them,' Habib said. On Wednesday, airstrikes hit Gaza and killed at least 59 people, according to Gazan authorities. One attack killed 33 people when bombs hit a popular café where young people were using the internet in Gaza City. The bombs are hitting already starving people. Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, earlier this month. Picture: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP A total blockade by Israel on humanitarian aid and other supplies into Gaza is now in its third month. Some 10,000 acutely malnourished children have been identified by the UN in Gaza this year. Food prices have spiked by up to 1,400%. Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the blockading by Israel of food and humanitarian aid to Gaza "clearly constitutes a war crime". Despite such horror in his homeland, Habib was recently refused an application to remain in Ireland. Although he is a refugee, he was granted refugee status in Greece — the first EU country he reached after fleeing Gaza. He subsisted in destitution there, living in woodland and encountering racism. Habib speaks fluent English, but he does not speak Greek His brother lives in Cork with a visa and, after years in the country, Habib has built up a support network here. His solicitor, Susan Doyle, said that maintaining a support network is important, particularly when he has suffered such trauma from the Israeli onslaught on his country and is in constant fear about the survival of his family there. A move to Greece would be a move into penury, without the language or any support network, Ms Doyle said. But the State's position is that Greece is a safe country and he must return there, she said. 'In Greece, he was destitute and he faced discrimination," she said. "He was living in a really impoverished camp where it was filthy. He had medical issues, but he wasn't seen by doctors. He'd be landing in Greece, where he previously ended up in abject poverty, with nowhere to go. He doesn't know anyone. He doesn't speak the language 'The law would say that if you are likely to end up in serious poverty, then you shouldn't be sent back there. "But the Government's viewpoint would be that Greece is a safe country and that, regardless of whatever experiences he's had, he should be returned to a European country because they are members of the European Convention on Human Rights," she added. Habib Al Ostaz's solicitor Susan Doyle said a move to Greece would be 'a move into penury, without the language or any support network'. File Picture: Gareth Chaney The recent refusal of his application is also a waste of taxpayer money, Ms Doyle said, because Habib won a High Court action regarding the State's refusal to let him stay last year, so the new decision will again be challenged in the courts. Legal costs will likely come in at more than €20,000 against the State. 'We took a judicial review last year as to why he couldn't return to Greece, and we were successful in that case," Ms Doyle said. 'But when they refused it again, they refused it on the basis of the exact same reasons as last time. So, we're going back to the High Court again on the exact same case that we previously won 'The State will pay our costs when we win this again, which is a complete waste of taxpayers' money. Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan sent a letter to HABIB saying he can either leave Ireland voluntarily, consent to a deportation, or make representations as to why he should be given leave to remain in Ireland. 'We're in the process of making that submission now,' Ms Doyle said. Applications by refugees are being increasingly refused since immigration protests swept the country in recent years, she said. 'Two to three years ago, he [Habib] would have been given permission to remain immediately. But I think the Government is really trying to show that they're being hard on immigration at the moment. 'They want to take a tough line with it. People that would have been given permission to remain in the past are no longer being given it," she added. Read More Kneecap's political rebellion runs into the limits of global tolerance
