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RTÉ News
01-08-2025
- General
- RTÉ News
'Our children cannot eat symbolism' - Gazan on food shortages
Most people in Gaza are eating just one meal a day, with many collapsing from hunger, a Palestinian businessman living inside the enclave has said. Speaking on RTÉ's News at One from his family's tent, Hani Abu Akar said what Gazans were experiencing at the moment "can hardly be described as a life". He said: "Everywhere in Gaza we see people collapsing in the streets, and in the tents, because there is no food." Mr Abu Akar described how obtaining food has become a daily ordeal, not just because of inflation but because essential food items are simply not available. "Sometimes I spend hours just searching for a kilogram of flour or rice. We have no gas or electricity to cook so we search for firewood to light a fire. Even charging a mobile phone or turning on a small lamp at night is a challenge," he said. He added: "There is no protection from the scorching sun during the day and the cold at night. There is no privacy, no safety and none of the basic elements of human dignity." The reality, he explained, is that most people were just eating one meal a day. "The meal is Gaza is just wheat flour," he explained, adding that rice or lentils could also be bought for large sums of money. "For one kilo of rice we have to pay at least $45-$50," Mr Abu Akar said. Some aid trucks are coming into Gaza, and there have been food drops from the air. Aid agencies have said this represents just 1% of the needs of Gaza's population of over 2 million people. Mr Abu Akar, who is trying to raise awareness of the dire situation, said the aid delivery system had become a "death machine". "People push and shove and then gunfire breaks out. I have personally witnessed people being injured or killed simply for trying to get a bag of flour," he said. He said the population was now trapped with two brutal choices. He said: "Either we risk our lives trying to secure food for our children or stay at home and watch them starve. "This is a choice no human being should ever be forced to make." Mr Abu Akar said one small bright spot was the assistance provided by Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, who he says was getting food and medicine into Gaza despite the obstacles. This aid is being made available in community kitchens and in hospitals. Before 7 October 2023 Mr Abu Akar had a very different life as a businessman. He also did some advisory work for the Palestinian Authority which controlled Gaza before it lost control to Hamas. "I owned a company. I had a spacious home, library, garden and warm family residence. All of that disappeared in a single moment of bombing. Nothing remains but memories," he said. "All our children in Gaza are under pressure," he said. "We try to stay together and to speak together. They are children, they don't understand the meaning of the war, the meaning of genocide, the meaning of holocaust," he said. As international pressure to end the war continues, Canada has become the latest country to move towards recognising the state of Palestine. Mr Abu Akar said that while he was thankful for this, it was only symbolically significant. He said: "Our children cannot eat symbolism. What we urgently need is medicine, clean water, food and shelter. Our most pressing priority is to survive." He continued: "We must ask what weight does such recognition have if not backed by real power? "Can these countries stop the massacres, can they end the starvation? "Can they halt the flow of weapons, money and political cover to Israel?" Mr Abu Akar said if people were being "killed, disappeared, wounded or starved" there would be little left to recognise. "A state without a living people is meaningless," he said. Mr Abu Akar said his message to Ireland or any country that wants to help is to try to bring in aid with an international force and not just leave it at a terminal outside Gaza.
Saba Yemen
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
16 martyrs, injured in Zionist raids on Gaza Strip
Gaza - (Saba): Sixteen Palestinian citizens were martyrs and others wounded early Friday morning in Israeli shelling of various areas in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian News Agency reported that 10 citizens were killed and others wounded in more than five airstrikes by Israeli drones that targeted the entrance to the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, and also targeted those trying to rescue the wounded. The agency added that three other citizens, including a child, were killed when Israeli aircraft bombed an apartment near the Abd al-Al intersection on al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City. Two children were also killed and their father seriously wounded when the Israeli air force bombed a home belonging to the Abu Akar family in the western camp area of Khan Yunis. Enemy forces detonated a robot in the vicinity of al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, causing extensive damage to the hospital facilities and setting fire to the medicine warehouse. The occupation prevented civil defense crews from extinguishing the fire. Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli enemy has been committing genocidal crimes in the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 175,000 dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands displaced. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
