Images are emerging of the extent of hunger and starvation in Gaza, the self-governed Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas, especially in the north of the enclave where residents continue to flee, not because of bombs and attacks by the Israeli Defence Forces, but because of the severe lack of food.
The desperation for food came to the fore on February 29, 2024 when Palestinian scramble to get flour from an aid convoy leading to a stampede and the Israeli army opening fire on the crowd. More than 100 people were reported killed.
The war in Gaza, which has now lasted for five months, broke out after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli kibbutz by Hamas, killing more than 1200 Israelis and taking hundreds more hostage.
In response, the Israeli government launched air strikes and a ground invasion, which has now claimed some 30,000 Palestinian lives. Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire have so far failed.
Shortly after the October 7 attack, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel would be allowed into Gaza.
That blockade is beginning to take a toll on the people of Gaza with children, the most adversely affected.
Much of the war and the devastation brought on by the bombings in the early months and now images of malnourished babies and mothers, has continued to be captured on social media.
The videos from Gaza war continue generate millions of views on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. A young Palestinian girl, identified as Hanan, along with other family members, was captured in one video after making the long journey from northern Gaza to the south on foot. The north of Gaza had mostly been emptied months earlier because of the bombings.
In the video posted on Instagram and viewed millions of times, Hanan describes the situation in the north of Gaza as very bad. And asked if her journey was difficult with the Israeli army snipers on the road, she said there was no real fear of the army or that they would killed.
On why her family then decided to leave the north, after enduring for 140 days, her one word response was, “hunger.”
Last week, the UN agency in charge of Palestinian affairs said it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza – where it is not “possible to conduct proper humanitarian operations” – amid increasing reports of famine among people in the area.
The UN began warning of “pockets of famine” in Gaza last month, with needs particularly acute in the north. Conditions have steadily worsened since, causing a rise in the number of hungry people making fraught attempts to claim aid from passing trucks.
“The desperate behaviour of hungry and exhausted people is preventing the safe and regular passage of our trucks,” said Tamara Alrifai, director of external relations for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). She added that she was “very wary of how to explain this so as not to make it sound like we are blaming people or describing these things as criminal acts”.
“But we want to say that their stopping our trucks to help themselves is no longer making it possible to conduct proper humanitarian operations,” she added.
US Carries Out First Aid Airdrop Into Gaza
Amid increasing pressure, the US has carried out its first airdrop of aid for Gaza, with more than 30,000 meals parachuted in by three military planes.
The operation was reportedly carried out in conjunction with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, US Central Command said even as officials noted that the drop was the first of many announced by President Joe Biden on Friday.
Biden had promised to step up aid to Gaza after the death of more than 100 people seeking aid from a convoy on Thursday.
C-130s dropped more than 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza, US Central Command said in a statement.
“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes,” it added.
There are other countries including the UK, France, Egypt and Jordan, which have previously airdropped aid into Gaza, but this is the first by the US.
In his statement on Friday, President Biden said the US would “insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need”.
According to US officials Israel supports the mission, which is being carefully planned to ensure the safety of those on the ground.
It is believed that airdrops are an inefficient, expensive and complex way of delivering supplies.
The fact the US has opted for this method underscores the harshness of the humanitarian crisis, and the difficulty of getting aid by road to Gaza’s civilians.
On Thursday 112 people were killed and more than 760 injured as they crowded around aid lorries on the south-western edge of Gaza City. Hamas accused Israel of firing at civilians, but Israel said most died in a crush after it fired warning shots.
According to Hamas-controlled health ministry more than 30,000 people, including 21,000 children and women, have been killed in Gaza since the ground invasion of the strip by Israel, adding that some 7,000 are missing and at least 70,450 injured.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the October 7 attacks perpetrated by Hamas militants against Israel, which killed 1,200 Israeli citizens and nationals of other countries. About 200 others were abducted and taken hostage, which are the subject of negotiations.
Gaza: Palestinian Envoy Laments Humanitarian Catastrophe As Death Toll Passes 30,000
The Ambassador of Palestine to Nigeria, Abdallah Abu Shawesh has decried the increasing scale and gravity of the humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israel’s “relentless bombardment, destruction and suffocating siege on the Gaza population” even as the death toll has reportedly passed the 30,000 mark.
The envoy told a news conference in Abuja on Thursday 70,215 injuries and around 8,000 people are still missing under the rubble following the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people since October 7
Israel started a ground invasion of Gaza after the October 7, 2023 attacks carried out by Hamas, which killed 1,200 and abducted about 200 Israeli citizens and nationals of other countries.
On the 146th day of the war Israel launched on Gaza, Shawesh on Thursday called on the international community to stop arms exports to Israel immediately even as he lamented that Israel has stopped renewing visas and work permits for scores of aid workers who provide vital support for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
He warned that “humanitarian aid is still being blocked by the Israeli Occupation Force and famine is next door in north Gaza, the people there are starving”.
He also accused Israeli of waging a relentless genocidal war against the Palestinian people adding that Israeli Occupied Force has reportedly subjected Palestinian women and girls to multiple forms of sexual assault such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers.
Abu Shawesh noted that Israel turns the ‘safe’ corridor to Gaza’s south into a trap to kill hungry and forcibly displaced Palestinians.
Recall that the Palestinian Presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh was quoted as saying that “the world is genuinely interested in having security and stability in the region, it must end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and recognize an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital”.
However, the much talked about two-state solution to the Israel –Palestinian crisis is becoming increasingly uncertain with the current situation in Gaza and parts of the West Bank, as Israel insists that there won’t be peace in Gaza if Hamas is not defeated.
“Life drains out of Gaza at terrifying speed,” said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths on aid seeker attack, as the death toll in Gaza crosses 30,000-mark.
