Family in Gaza has no 'flour or clean water, basic necessities', says Cork chef
Cork chef and University College Cork student Habib Al Ostaz's family now hear that sound frequently, with war-weary people suddenly crumpling from starvation and increasingly from thirst.
His father narrowly escaped being killed or maimed when a 'death market' — where aid was being delivered by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — was bombed by Israeli forces.
They never returned for much-needed aid.
His family's voices are now so weak they are barely audible.
'I avoid calling them sometimes now. It's really hard to hear their voices. I sometimes can't handle it, so I chat in messages instead,' Habib told the Irish Examiner.
'I have no words to support them.
People often have not eaten in three days
An acute water shortage is also a huge problem.
Children there are now dying of thirst, the UN said this week.
Disease is also rampant due to a block on water distribution, leading to serious problems with sanitation and sewerage.
Fuel for trucks to distribute water across the territory has not been allowed into the region.
Israel blocked all supplies from early March to the end of May and continues to impose restrictions, rights groups say, and the territory of more than 2m people is suffering from famine-like conditions.
More than 56,077 people, including many children, have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
People carrying aid parcels, walk along the Salah al-Din Rd near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, used by food-seeking Palestinians to reach an aid distributution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Picture: Eyad Baba/AFP
Habib's family is subsisting on lentils, eating one meagre meal every two days.
They have no flour, so they ground the lentils to make a flour substitute for bread.
It causes intense pain in their stomachs, but they have no other option for food.
They have also ground down animal food to make a flour for bread.
They laughed that they eat animal food now. It hurts me so much
When they can, they make 'coffee' out of chickpeas.
'Their voices sound completely different now. They're so weak.
'Imagine if you haven't eaten in a week, no proper protein, no fresh carbohydrates. It's like a car with no fuel.
'It's not fair. Here we have so much, but they don't even have flour or clean water, basic human necessities.'
As most infrastructure has been bombed in Gaza, there is no water supply or electricity.
His family walk 500m every day to get a supply of somewhat dirty water for the day.
More than 500 people have been killed by Israeli fire at these aid distribution points since the start of last month, and almost 3,800 were wounded, according to figures issued by the Gazan health ministry.
Security guards ride aboard trucks carrying humanitarian aid in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Wednesday. Picture: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Habib's father escaped a bombing by seconds at one two weeks ago.
'I warned my brother not to go there,' Habib said.
'My dad went once. He walked for four or five kilometres to get there with his friends and neighbours.
'Bombs started falling when they were sitting there waiting for the aid trucks. My dad fled. When he went back, he saw the place where he had been sitting was bombed. More than 50 people were killed there that day. He knew some of them.
People know it's too dangerous to go, but they have no choice. They have no water or food, so they're going to die anyway
His family has remained in their home in North Gaza despite an evacuation order.
'They know it's dangerous, but they have nowhere else to go,' Habib said.
His family moved south as refugees under previous evacuation orders, but those areas were still attacked.
'Nowhere is safe in Gaza,' Habib said.
A neighbour's home was bombed this week — killing all 20 people inside, many of them children. Some were refugees from another part of Gaza who went to seek shelter with relatives.
One was Habib's age and he knew them to see around the area since he was a child.
More than 70 of Habib's friends and relatives have been killed since the bloody conflict erupted.
Many of his school friends are now dead.
Palestinian women mourn the death of loved ones, killed during overnight Israeli strikes, outside the morgue of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on June 26, 2025. Picture: Omar Al-Qatta/AFP)
His mother was warned to leave the home as a large building just 10m away was about to be targeted by airstrikes in recent days.
'She left and it was bombed five minutes later,' Habib said.
Their home was also damaged in the blast. It has already been hit multiple times, but the family feels forced to stay and try to repair it.
Outside is a sea of mangled buildings, some pulverised, others half collapsed, large concrete slabs teetering at alarming angles over piles of dust and debris.
His father was walking down a nearby street when an Israeli intelligence agent called his mobile phone, asking him to remove a woman who was still in a building that was about to be bombed.
'He could see exactly where my father was and told him where to go,' Habib said.
He got the woman out and the building was bombed
'Israel knows everything about us, they have our phone numbers, they know our underwear size.'
Palestinians search for usable items in the rubble of heavily damaged and collapsed buildings after Israeli attacks on Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on June 26, 2025. Picture: Saeed MMT Jaras/Anadolu via Getty Images
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the EU's failure to reach a unified stance on the Gazan humanitarian crisis was 'a huge stain'.
Europe will lose its credibility unless it unifies to end the blockade on the strip to get urgently-needed aid to the people of Gaza, he said this week in Brussels.
On Wednesday, draft legislation was published which would ban the sale of Israeli goods produced in occupied Palestinian territories in Ireland.
However, it did not include any reference to services also being banned.
The Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 draft will now be sent for pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee.
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