Since the attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli retaliatory action on Gaza in October 2023, more than 45 thousand Palestinians have lost their lives and more than one lakh have been injured. About 90 percent of Gazans are internally displaced, with a large number forced to flee from one place to another, sometimes to escape airstrikes and fighting. They are struggling to find food and shelter: millions of homes have been destroyed, and 345,000 people face catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Jonathan Dumont after returning from a visit to the occupied Palestinian territory The serious situation prevailing in Gaza has been shared with UN News. “Abdul Rahman told me, ‘I need food.’ We were in the city of Khan Yunis in southwestern Gaza, where hot rice was being served to people desperate for food. A child nearby started crying, fearing that the World Food Program (WFP) would send it before it was his turn to eat. This food given should not end. Abdul Rehman expressed the pain of his dreams being destroyed like the buildings around him, ‘I was very ambitious. There were countless dreams. But now I can’t even buy bread. I had reached Gaza a day earlier, traveling 10 hours from Amman. It was one of the few remaining routes for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip from Israel. This 10-day trip, my first to the area since the war began 15 months ago, was extremely short of supplies – including boxes of medicines and other relief items. There were waits at the border for permission to send supplies into Gaza, and the few truckers who were allowed in faced destroyed roads, crowds of impatient and armed people. Used to deliver goods while avoiding the gangs. Gaza city, which is equal to the size of America’s Detroit city, has today been transformed into a mountain of debris. I have visited many conflict zones in the past year – Haiti ravaged by conflict between criminal groups, the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan’s war-torn capital Khartoum – but the destruction in Gaza is on a different scale. On the one hand, the beautiful waves on the Mediterranean coast give the illusion of peace, while on the other, there is a scene of endless destruction, black smoke rising from burning buildings. It is also different from other war zones in that Gazans have no opportunity to escape from here. There is no way. They are completely trapped and hunger is skyrocketing. More than 90 percent of the population is facing crisis or worse levels of food insecurity. According to the latest assessment by experts, more than three lakh people could face catastrophic levels of hunger – the highest level of food insecurity. ‘People are hungry, and angry’ The amount of food being sent by the UN food agency, WFP, that is being allowed to enter the Gaza Strip meets only one-third of the hungry people’s needs. Could. For several months, we have been forced to repeatedly cut rations. In December, we were able to deliver only 10 days’ worth of food to 1.1 million people, including canned goods, tomato paste, oil and wheat flour. People in northern Gaza, under Israeli siege, are suffering the most from hunger. Over the past two months, relief supplies have barely been allowed to arrive. Ghattas Hakoura, a bread maker, works at a WFP-supported bakery in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. He told that nowadays bread has become the most important food for people because it is very cheap. Men and women were standing in separate lines, buying pita bread which cost three shekels or less than 1 US dollar per packet. Ghattas Hakoura said, ‘People are hungry and angry. They have lost their homes, their jobs, their families. There is no meat available, nor vegetables – and even if vegetables are available, they are very expensive.’ A 25 kg bag of wheat flour is being sold for 150 US dollars. In a region that once boasted crops of citrus fruits, vegetables and strawberries, I saw small peppers selling for US$195 per kilo in a market in Gaza City. However no one was buying. No one had that much money. Holding his young daughter in his arms, Ibrahim al-Balawi told me that he had never drank a glass of milk in his life. He knows nothing except war. This is a matter of concern for many parents in Gaza, because this is a place where you hear 24 hours a day the sounds of drones and explosions coming from the air, land and sea. After our food distribution in Khan Younis, Hind Hassouna, a mother of four, told me, ‘I want my children to have the same future as other children living in Arab countries. They can live a decent life, wear good clothes, eat good food and live a good life. The most important thing is freedom from fear – like any ordinary child in an Arab country.” Dead bodies rotting in the sun. Today, the children of Hind Hasauna have to walk one and a half kilometers even to fetch water. Their dwelling, their tent can easily collapse from the wind or it can be flooded by rain water in winter. In this shelter their children were eating their small portions of rice distributed by WFP with spoons. This might have been his only meal of the day. A small boy slowly picked out every last grain from his plate, a small smile on his face. Children are the worst affected by war. I saw a dead horse in the debris while going to distribute food in Khan Yunis. Nearby, a little girl was picking through a garbage dump in search of food. Later, on our way to Gaza City in our armored vehicle, we drove around the militarized corridor that divides Gaza’s north and south. Saw dead bodies rotting in the sun. At some distance, a small group of women and children were seen, carrying their belongings and going in the same direction. They looked exhausted and exhausted from the heat. What impact will these experiences have on Gaza’s children as they grow up? What will happen to their generation? Amid the devastation, Gazans are embracing every hope of life. In Khan Yunis, Abu Bilal excavated his ruined house and rebuilt the walls from its debris. It was earlier a multi-storey building, with cement slabs creating a delicate living space. He showed me his shelter, which consisted of a basic toilet and a makeshift plastic sink. Abu Bilal described his shelter as ‘dangerous’, saying it could easily collapse in a storm or airstrike. Nabeel Azab showed me the remains of his house in what was once a densely populated area. Nabeel, who previously worked as a taxi driver, pointed to the mangled part of the vehicle that was once his means of livelihood. Like other families in Gaza, they have been displaced several times, forced to move from one tent settlement to another. His temporary shelter in the southern city of Rafah was hit by an airstrike, injuring him and other family members. This broke his patience. He cleared the debris from his damaged house in Khan Yunis and went back to live there. Their four-storey building still stands leaning on a sandy hill. His family grows lettuce and other green vegetables on the ground below to survive. But this is not enough to survive. Azab told me, ‘I feel very helpless when I see my little daughter crying for food. I can’t do anything for him. Nothing.”‘
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