North Gazans scrounge animal feed for flour as markets empty
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Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have to try to adjust to a grim reality - that food is scarce.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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GAZA - In the two weeks since Israeli troops scaled back operations in northern Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are emerging from hiding only to adjust to a grim reality – that food is scarce.
As the Hamas police force also stirs back into partial operation, its officers are touring markets and issuing orders to keep prices down.
A kilogram of lentils must not be priced above 12 shekels (S$4.37), they say, and nothing more than eight shekels for the same amount of rice.
But there are so few of these staples that the instructions are meaningless, said Mr Youssef Fares, a journalist who did not heed Israel’s evacuation orders and has been living with his siblings and their families in Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp just north of the city.
Mostly what is available – seasoning, coffee creamer, candy and gum – is of no use, he said.
That has led some to gather dwindling animal fodder – corn, wheat and barley – and grind it into flour. Others are venturing into abandoned farm fields to forage for wild greens such as spinach, chard and sorrel.
“People risk their lives to collect these herbs,” said resident Ryad Asaliya.
He added that he mostly depends on lemons for sustenance, since they are in season. His current diet primarily consists of “lemon with salt, lemon with red chilli paste and pickled lemon”.
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7,
The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said starvation is setting in across the coastal strip.
In a report on Jan 16, it said: “Gazans now make up 80 per cent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, marking an unparalleled humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel said it is stepping up aid entering Gaza,
But getting those supplies to the north is a complicated and dangerous endeavour, with Israel forbidding traffic from heading to that part of Gaza as it continues its operations there.
Asked about hunger in the area, a military official said all civilians are being encouraged to head to safer parts of the south, where aid is available.
Colonel Elad Goren, head of civilian affairs in Gaza for the Israeli military, said at a press briefing in mid-January that “you can see pictures in the Arab media of markets selling fruits and vegetables and bread” in southern Gaza. Twelve bakeries are open there, he added.
The problem in the rest of the territory is the result of UN not moving enough lorries when Israel clears them, Col Goren said, adding that “there is no starvation in Gaza”.
Those who live in the northern parts see it differently.
“The situation here in the north is famine,” Mr Fares said. “There are no other words to describe it.”
Mr Majd Hamdouna, who is in Gaza City, also in the north, said some people collect food – bags of salted nuts, peanut butter and luncheon meat – that Israeli soldiers left behind in houses they were holed up in or from field camps and resell them for prices beyond the capacity of most residents.
Ms Enas Mohammed, who managed to leave Gaza and is now in Cairo, said her neighbours called her and asked if they could enter her Gaza City home to search for food. “They found biscuits, some flour, cooking gas, sugar, tea and coffee,” she said of the things she left behind.
Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people and abducted 240 others when they swarmed into Israel on Oct 7, according to Israeli figures.
The death toll in Gaza has risen above 26,000, the majority being women and children, according to officials from Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.
The tally does not distinguish between civilians and fighters or include 7,000 missing people.
“While everyone in Gaza is hungry, the people in the northern areas face the highest share of catastrophic hunger, exposing them to the grimmest consequences of food insecurity,” said Mr Matthew Hollingworth of the World Food Programme in a statement.
“During the few times the World Food Programme has been able to gain access to deliver food there, the team saw shocking levels of deprivation.”
As Professor Aeyal Gross puts it, supply means little if you cannot afford to pay. “It’s misleading to focus only on how much food enters Gaza,” said the professor of international law at Tel Aviv University. “The economy is so weak that supply is only part of the story. People have no money.” BLOOMBERG
