The Gaza Strip’s DEIR AL-BALAH (AP) In the tent she lives with her husband and four young girls in the Gaza Strip, Yasmin Eid coughs and shields her face while cooking a small pot of lentils over a fire fuelled with twigs and scrap paper.
On Wednesday, it was the only supper they could afford.
She remarked, “My girls are so hungry that they suck on their thumbs, and I pat their backs until they fall asleep.”
The Eids, who have been displaced five times, now live in central Gaza, where humanitarian organizations have comparatively easier access than in the north, which has been severely damaged and largely cut off since Israel launched a fresh onslaught against Hamas militants in early October. However, almost everyone in Gaza is currently going hungry. There may be a full-blown famine in the north, according to experts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister were the targets of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court on Thursday. Israel vehemently disputes the claims that they used famine as a weapon of mass destruction.
Yasmin Eid cooks a pot of lentils for her four daughters at their tent in a refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Image courtesy of Abdel Kareem Hana/Associated Press
The Eids are among hundreds of thousands taking refuge in filthy tent camps in Deir al-Balah. This week, the neighborhood bakeries will be closed for five days. Before fresh supplies arrived, bread and flour disappeared from shelves, pushing the price of a package of bread beyond $13 by Wednesday.
The number of households in central and southern Gaza suffering from severe hunger has sharply increased, the UN humanitarian agency warned. It seems connected to last weekend’s robbery of about 100 aid trucks in southern Gaza, near Israeli military installations, at gunpoint. While Hamas claimed it was the work of local thieves, Israel blamed Hamas and seems to have done little to halt the plunder.
According to humanitarian organizations, the looting is just one of several barriers preventing the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the region from receiving food and other essential help. In addition, they must deal with Israeli limitations on their freedom of movement, continuous combat, and significant damage caused by Israeli shelling of vital infrastructure and highways.
For Eids, hunger is an everyday occurrence.
Yasmin and her family have been going to bed hungry for months.
We are unable to purchase anything because everything has gone up in price, she stated. We never eat dinner before going to bed.
A single package of Nescafe costs about $1.30, yet she misses coffee. If available, a medium bottle of frying oil costs $15, and a kilogram (2 pounds) of onions costs $10. There are still some local veggies in the markets, but meat and fowl had all but disappeared months ago. In a place of poverty where few people have steady jobs, such amounts are enormous.
Hundreds of people queue for hours to receive food from needy nonprofits.
According to Gaza Soup Kitchen co-founder Hani Almadhoun, his workers are only able to serve tiny bowls of pasta or rice once a day. According to him, people could visit the market one day and purchase something for $5, only to discover that it has doubled or quadrupled in price by the time they return in the afternoon.
For a large portion of the war, its kitchen in the center town of Zuweida ran on a daily budget of about $500. The cost of aid increased to about $1,300 per day when the volume entering Gaza fell in October. About half of the 1,000 families that line up every day can be fed by it.
A U.S. ultimatum and a dramatic drop in aid
Israel claims to have no restrictions on the quantity of aid that can enter Gaza and has in recent weeks announced several initiatives, such as the opening of a new border, that are intended to boost the flow. Citing hundreds of truckloads waiting on the Gaza side of the border, it accuses U.N. agencies of failing to retrieve it.
However, according to military statistics, the number of relief vehicles entering Gaza fell to about 1,800 in October from over 4,200 the month before. In November, around 2,400 trucks would enter Gaza at the present rate of admission. Before the war, 500 trucks a day or so entered.
Because of the continued fighting, Israeli denials of movement requests, and the breakdown of law and order, the U.N. claims that less than half of the truckloads are really distributed. Israeli airstrikes have attacked Hamas-run police, causing them to disappear from numerous locations.
The conflict began on October 7, 2023, when fighters led by Hamas invaded Israel, murdering over 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and kidnapping about 250 more. At least a third of the approximately 100 hostages who remain inside Gaza have died, and Hamas terrorists have frequently reassembled following Israeli operations, launching hit-and-run attacks from tunnels and bombed-out buildings.
More than 44,000 Palestinians have been murdered in Israel’s retaliatory operation, with over half of them being women and children, according to local health authorities. They do not specify the number of fighters among the dead.
In October, the United States cautioned Israel that if it did not quickly increase the flow of aid into Gaza, it may have to reduce some of its vital military assistance. However, the Biden administration refused to act after the 30-day ultimatum ended, claiming that some progress had been made.
In the meantime, Israel established laws cutting off its connection with UNRWA. The U.N. disputes Israel’s accusations that the agency allowed Hamas to infiltrate it.
Officials are reportedly thinking about having the military handle assistance distribution or contracting it out to private security firms, according to Israeli news agencies. When questioned about these plans on Wednesday, government spokesperson David Mercer stated that Israel is considering a number of innovative ways to guarantee a better future for Gaza.
Before being dismissed this month, former defense minister Yoav Gallant was viewed as a moderate voice in the far-right administration. He cautioned on X that entrusting the delivery of aid to a private company was a euphemism for the start of military control.
The majority of Palestinians in the region are concerned with surviving a war that has no end in sight as that debate takes place in Jerusalem, which is fewer than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from central Gaza.
It is hard for me to discuss the pain we are going through. “I’m embarrassed to discuss it,” remarked Hani, Yasmin’s husband. What am I able to tell you? I am a person who cannot give a bag of flour to all 21 of my family members.
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From Cairo, Khaled reported. This article was written by Julia Frankel of the Associated Press in Jerusalem.
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