Many in Gaza eat just once a day as hunger spreads amid aid woes | News, Sports, Jobs

AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Girls in the Hana Bayram family eat lentils cooked by their mother, Yasmin, in their tent at the refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Nov. 19.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Yasmin Eid coughs and covers her face, cooking a small pot of lentils over a fire fed by twigs and scrap paper in the tent she shares with her husband and four young daughters in the Gaza Strip.

This was their only meal on Wednesday; It was all they could afford.

“My daughters suck their thumbs because they are very hungry, and I caress their backs until they fall asleep,” he said.

After being displaced five times, Eid lives in central Gaza, where aid groups have relatively greater access than in the north; The area has remained largely isolated and largely destroyed since Israel launched a renewed offensive against the militant group Hamas in early October. But these days, almost everyone in Gaza is going hungry. In the north, experts say a full-blown famine could be on the way.

The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, accusing them of “using starvation as a method of warfare”; Israel stubbornly denies these accusations.

In Deir al-Balah, Eid is one of hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in squalid tent camps. Local bakeries closed for five days this week. The price of a bag of bread rose to more than $13 on Wednesday as bread and flour disappeared from shelves before more supplies arrived.

The United Nations humanitarian office has warned of a “drastic increase” in the number of households experiencing severe hunger in central and southern Gaza. The amount of food Israel has brought into Gaza over the past seven weeks has plummeted and is now at nearly the lowest levels of the entire war.

Aid groups and the UN say even less than that has reached the region’s 2.3 million Palestinians due to multiple obstacles to distribution, including Israeli army movement restrictions, ongoing conflict, damage to roads and theft. Gunmen robbed about 100 aid trucks in southern Gaza last weekend, close to Israeli military positions. Israel blamed Hamas but appeared to take no steps to stop the looting, while Hamas said it was the work of local thugs.

There is hunger during the holidays

daily routine

Yasmin and her family have been going hungry for months.

“The price of everything has increased and we can’t buy anything,” he said. “We always sleep without eating dinner.”

He misses coffee, but a single packet of Nescafe costs around $1.30. One kilogram (2 pounds) of onions sells for $10, and a medium bottle of cooking oil sells for $15 (if available). Meat and chicken disappeared from the market months ago, but there are still some local vegetables. Such sums reach astronomical figures in a poor region where few people earn a regular income.

While crowds of hundreds of people wait for hours to receive food from aid agencies, they too are struggling.

Hani Almadhoun, co-founder of Gaza Soup Kitchen, said their team can only serve small bowls of rice or pasta a day. “They might go to the grocery store one day and buy something for $5, and then come back in the afternoon and find it has doubled or tripled in price,” he said.

His kitchen in the central town of Zuweida operated on a daily budget of about $500 for most of the war. When the amount of aid arriving in Gaza dropped in October, its cost rose to $1,300 per day. It can feed about half of the 1,000 families who line up every day.

Sharp drop in aid

and the US’s ultimatum

Israel says it has no limits on the amount of aid entering Gaza and in recent weeks has announced a series of measures it says are aimed at increasing the flow, including the opening of a new crossing point.

But the military’s own figures show the amount of aid entering Gaza dropped to around 1,800 trucks in October. This figure was above 4,200 trucks in the previous month. At the current entry rate, approximately 2,400 trucks will enter Gaza in November. Before the war, about 500 trucks entered every day.

Israel accuses UN organizations of not receiving aid, pointing out that hundreds of truckloads are rotting on the Gaza side of the border. The UN says the Israeli army is often unable to reach the border to pick up aid cargoes due to its refusal of requests to move, ongoing fighting and a breakdown of law and order. As a result, it is stated that only half of the aid received was distributed.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters raided Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping around 250. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, at least a third of them dead, and Hamas Militants have repeatedly regrouped after Israeli operations and carried out hit-and-run attacks from tunnels and bombed buildings.

According to local health authorities, Israel’s retaliatory strike killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, more than half of whom were women and children; However, it does not say how many of those killed were combatants.

The United States warned Israel in October that it might be forced to cut some of its vital military support if Israel did not rapidly increase the amount of aid entering Gaza. But after the 30-day ultimatum expired, the Biden administration refused to take any action, saying some progress had been made.

Meanwhile, Israel passed a law severing ties with UNRWA. Israel accuses the agency of allowing Hamas to infiltrate it; allegations rejected by the UN

Israeli news sources reported that officials were considering plans for the military to take over aid distribution or outsource it to private security companies. “Israel is seeking many creative solutions to ensure a better future for Gaza,” government spokesman David Mercer said when asked about such plans on Wednesday.

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who was seen as a voice of moderation in the far-right government before being fired this month, warned X that handing over aid distribution to a private firm was “a cover-up for the beginning of military rule.” ”

While this debate continues in Jerusalem, less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the center of Gaza, most Palestinians in the region are focused on surviving a war with no end in sight.

“I have a hard time explaining the pain we are experiencing. I am ashamed to talk about it,” said Yasmin’s husband Hani. “What can I tell you? “I am someone who has 21 family members and cannot give them a bag of flour.”