The Electronic Intifada 17 June 2024
Searching for food puts enormous strain on Gaza’s people.
APA imagesAn especially bizarre example of propaganda has been published by the Israeli military over the past few days.
Despite how it is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza, the army boasted of conducting “humanitarian aid efforts” throughout the current war.
Palestinians have not witnessed any work by Israel that could accurately be categorized as “humanitarian.”
Amani Labad has been in the northern part of Gaza since the war began. She has been uprooted many times.
“I have been fighting all kinds of death,” Amani said. “Death from violence and from severe hunger.”
Her family can only eat one meal a day.
“The army has bulldozed the agricultural lands and there are no vegetables in the markets,” she said.
Amani is extremely worried that one or more of her four children could die from malnutrition.
“I am very tired of being displaced from one place to another, searching for safety for my children,” she said. “And then comes the suffering of searching for food as well.”
Ahmad Kurd is from Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
“I have 10 grandchildren and I cannot bear to hear them crying from hunger,” he said.
“It is very painful.”
“How long will we remain in this situation?” he added. “We are all so tired.”
For a number of months, the problems of hunger and malnutrition were more acute in northern Gaza than in the south.
Yet the World Food Programme has now warned that the situation in southern Gaza is “quickly deteriorating.”
Israel’s invasion of Rafah has meant that the crossing between that city and Egypt is closed. Far less food is entering Gaza as a result.
Rami Labda is from Khan Younis, another city in southern Gaza.
“They have closed the crossing and left us to die,” he said.
“I have a child with very weak immunity because of malnutrition,” Rami added. “He craves fruit and asks me for some every day but I am unable to provide it.”
Echoing a widespread view, Rami said, “Why do they not want the war to stop? Sometimes we feel like we are going to lose our minds because of what we are going through.”
Ruwaida Amer is a journalist based in Gaza.
