More than two months since the Israeli government closed off all of Gaza’s border crossings, blocking the entry of lifesaving aid supplies and commercial goods, stocks of food are almost depleted. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across Gaza face the gruelling fate of slow, painful starvation and the shadow of death from hunger.
According to a new Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC) report, 100% of the population of Gaza is expected to face crisis or worse acute food insecurity between May and September this year due to the ongoing conflict and current aid blockade.
Everything is running out. All bakeries supported by the World Food Programme were closed more than a month ago, and the prices of goods have increased by at least 400 per cent. Everyone in Gaza has been forced to ration remaining food stocks, surviving on as little as a loaf of bread and a small meal of beans a day – including our own staff, who are still doing everything they can to support those in need.
We spoke with two families from Gaza about their daily struggle to find food.
Baher and Yasmeen’s story: “The prices are unreal”
We are on the brink of starvation. Things are really difficult, my wife is pregnant, I have triplets.” - Baher
“Formula milk prices are super high. My wife is suffering from malnutrition," says Baher, husband of Yasmeen. "The prices are unreal. We delay our breakfast and our lunch so we can make do with these two meals instead of three. Everyone is losing weight. It is like we’re all on a crash diet.
“The biggest chapter in our suffering is my malnourished triplets. The children are 13 months old but their weight and size is of a seven month baby. Feeding them is a daily struggle. Now we are forced to decrease the amount of powdered milk we use and add more water. We have to give them whatever is available on the market, but the constant change in the milk we are feeding them is causing them to vomit and get tired every time we change their milk.
“No words can describe the situation we have reached. We hope our suffering and this hell we’re living in will end soon.”
Yasmeen became pregnant with her triplets through IVF just before the escalation of conflict in Gaza. We spoke with her several months ago about her experience of pregnancy and raising triplets in a warzone – read Yasmeen’s story.
Mohammed’s story: “The most important thing to us is flour”
“I found a 50 kg bag of flour for 900 shekels (~250 USD) but I did not buy it because it was spoiled. But people are eating spoiled flour, like my uncle’s family who use the flour after sifting it to get rid of the mites.
“We have devised a system in our household, where the adults will make do with one half of a pita bread loaf in the morning and another in the evening. Of course, the most important thing to us is flour, if there’s bread then nothing else matters. Bread is the only thing that can help alleviate our hunger.
“Today, a kilo of sugar is being sold for about 70 shekels (19.6 USD). A bottle of cooking oil is sold for 65 shekels (18 USD). You ask about the prices but end up not buying anything. We only buy this stuff when we really have to. Those who have no money or cannot afford to buy fresh food are forced to rely entirely on spoiled flour or canned food.”
CARE’s response in Gaza
Our CARE teams in Gaza are currently focused on continuing to offer primary healthcare services at our clinic in Deir Al-Balah, as well as providing water trucking to displaced communities in need.
But our supplies in Gaza are running out, and we are having to ration to ensure we can prolong service delivery as much as possible. We will not close the doors of our primary healthcare centre, but our range of services will be increasingly limited.
Meanwhile, supplies that could be distributed to those who are suffering sit just a few kilometres away. We have large stocks of food, medical supplies, hygiene and dignity kits, tents, and women’s clothes stuck outside the borders in warehouses in Egypt, Jordan and the West Bank.
We continue to urge the international community to exhaust every effort to secure an immediate and lasting ceasefire and a return of the hostages. To prevent continued starvation and further death, Israel must allow humanitarian aid to flow at scale, safely and unhindered into and throughout Gaza.
Gaza - how you can help
More funds are still urgently needed to meet the huge levels of need. Please donate today to help ensure that we can scale up our response as soon as the blockade is lifted.