Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Samar Rabie wonders how she will be able to feed the 15 people who live with her. The mother of four is hosting her husband’s friends and their families, displaced from Gaza City, in her house in Khan Younis, and is struggling to find basic necessities like bread.
“I went to a shopping center to buy things, but I found nothing,” said the 28-year-old.
The shelves are empty, without sugar, legumes, cheese or any other dairy product.
“There is only cooking oil,” says Rabie, noting that the price of food has tripled since the start of the war. “We are deprived of many basic foodstuffs, as if everything was done so that in addition to not having electricity or water, we would be hungry. »
Due to the lack of bread, family and friends have had to cook pasta and rice, but stocks of these products are also quickly drying up.
“I just worry about how we will feed each other after two or three days and what we will live on in these difficult days that are choking us more and more,” Rabie says.
“Their farms were destroyed”
Mahmoud Sharab, also a resident of Khan Younis, says that while he is dismayed by the rising prices, he does not blame grocers for vegetable inflation.
“Their farms have been destroyed by constant Israeli bombing,” said the 35-year-old. “They cannot reach their lands. »
Sharab goes out every day to scour stores and markets for food, hoping to at least find canned food and cereals.
“I can’t find anything,” he said. “I had to ask people if they had canned beans or meat so I could buy them for my family.
“What Israel is waging is a war of starvation against citizens, and this policy scares many people, including children,” he said, adding that the deliberate bombing of bakeries has forced people to do so. queue for six or seven hours just to get products. a bag of bread.
According to the United Nations, no bakeries in the northern Gaza Strip have been operating since November 7 due to lack of fuel, water and wheat flour and structural damage. A total of 11 bakeries in the Gaza Strip have been completely destroyed, while others are unable to operate due to lack of flour, fuel and electricity.
“There are indications of negative coping mechanisms due to food shortages, including skipping or reducing meals and using unsafe and unhealthy methods of lighting fires,” a United Nations Office report said Wednesday. United Nations for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“People would resort to unconventional diets, such as consuming combinations of raw onions and raw eggplants.”
Since Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip on October 7, aid convoys have barely flowed, meaning they can only provide a “drop in the ocean” of the people’s needs. 2.3 million inhabitants of the territory, say humanitarian agencies.
Ninety-one trucks carrying aid arrived from Egypt on November 14, bringing the total number of trucks entering Gaza since October 21 to just 1,187. Before the war began, an average of 500 trucks entered every day in the Gaza Strip.
Although a limited amount of fuel was authorized Wednesday for the first time since October 7, Israeli authorities said it would be used exclusively for trucks distributing humanitarian aid to shelters, clinics and other beneficiaries.
Any other use, such as the operation of generators in hospitals or water and sanitation facilities, is prohibited.
Furthermore, it has become impossible to deliver aid to the north, with access largely cut off.
Limited food supplies are being distributed mainly to displaced people and host families in the southern Gaza Strip, with only flour provided to bakeries in the southern Strip, while Israel bans all transport of food to the city of Gaza and the north of it.
According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Israel has sharply intensified its “starvation war” against civilians in the Gaza Strip as a tool of subjugation in its ongoing war.
Before the Israeli war, 70 percent of children in the Gaza Strip already suffered from various health problems, including malnutrition, anemia and weakened immunity. This figure rose to more than 90 percent following Israeli bombing, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said.
The report highlights that Israel has focused its attacks on electrical generators and solar power units on which commercial establishments, restaurants and civilian institutions depend to maintain the minimum possible level of operation.
He also warned that Israeli attacks included the destruction of the agricultural area east of Gaza, flour silos and fishing boats, as well as the supply centers of humanitarian organizations, particularly the Relief Agency. and United Nations Works for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which provides the majority of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
Different ways to die
The hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians housed in UN-run schools and hospitals depend on UNRWA aid.
“We depend on aid to feed our children,” says Maysara Saad, who was moved with her nine children from the northern town of Beit Hanoon to a school in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan. Younis.
“There is nothing in the stores and the shelves are empty. We were kicked out of our homes to protect our children, but we also don’t want them to starve.
The 59-year-old said residents of Bani Suhaila often come to schools to see if there is any help available for their families.
“Everything is impossible to get, and with winter coming, staying warm has also become one of our responsibilities,” Saad said.
“It’s as if the Israelis are telling us that if we don’t die from the bombing, they will make us die of thirst, hunger or cold. It is a very cruel war that has no humanity.