After being displaced five times, Yasmin Eid, her husband and four young daughters reside in central Gaza, where aid groups have relatively more access than in the north, which has been largely isolated and heavily destroyed since Israel began waging a renewed offensive against the Hamas in early October. But nearly everyone in Gaza is going hungry these days. In the north, experts say a full-blown famine may be underway, said an AP report by Wafaa Shurafa and Fatma Khaled.
On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, accusing them of using “starvation as a method of warfare” – charges Israel adamantly denies.
In Deir al-Balah, the Eids are among hundreds of thousands sheltering in squalid tent camps. The local bakeries shut down for five days this week. The price of a bag of bread climbed above $13 by Wednesday, as bread and flour vanished from shelves before more supplies arrived.
The United Nations humanitarian office warned of a “stark increase” in the number of households experiencing severe hunger in central and southern Gaza. The amount of food Israel has let into Gaza the past seven weeks has plummeted, now at nearly the lowest levels of the entire war.
Even less than that is reaching the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians because of the many obstacles to distribution, aid groups and the U.N. say – including restrictions on movement by the Israeli military, ongoing fighting, damage to roads, and theft. Armed men robbed nearly 100 aid trucks last weekend in southern Gaza, close to Israeli military positions. Israel blamed Hamas but appears to have taken no action to stop the looting, while Hamas said it was the work of local bandits.
For the Eids, hunger is the daily routine
For months, Yasmin and her family have gone to bed hungry. “Everything has increased in price, and we cannot buy anything,” she said. “We always go to sleep without having dinner.”
Crowds of hundreds wait hours to get food from charities, which are also struggling.
Hani Almadhoun, co-founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen, said his teams can offer only small bowls of rice or pasta once a day. He said they “can go to the market on one day and buy something for $5, and then go back in the afternoon to find it doubled or tripled in price.”
