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Mint
22-05-2025
- General
- Mint
Aid deliveries do little to alleviate Gaza hunger crisis
Inside their small apartment in Gaza City this week, Marah Zant and 12 of her relatives had very little food left to eat, just some rice, lentils and a single can of fava beans that they were trying to stretch out for three days. The plan: eat one, very small meal a day. Then they heard that several trucks carrying food aid had entered Gaza for the first time in more than two months. But that news, too, turned into disappointment. 'We didn't see a single thing," said Zant, 21, who lives in the Sheikh Radwan area of the city. 'No one around us received anything either." After mounting U.S. and global pressure, Israel on Monday allowed a limited amount of food aid into war-ravaged Gaza after enforcing a humanitarian aid blockade since early March. But ordinary Palestinians and international aid agencies say not enough of it is getting in. On Tuesday, Israel permitted another 100 trucks to enter. The United Nations says at least 500 a day are needed if a worsening humanitarian disaster is to be averted. Palestinian children wait for a hot meal at a refugee camp in central Gaza. Aid groups have for weeks warned that Gaza's roughly two million residents are facing severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and clean water as stockpiles brought in during a fragile cease-fire earlier this year run out. Nearly three in five families can't find bread or fresh food and child malnutrition is sharply rising, says the International Rescue Committee. Nearly half a million people in Gaza already face starvation, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership, a global hunger watchdog, said last week. 'The decision to allow limited food aid to enter Gaza barely scratches the surface of what is needed," said Zoe Daniels, the IRC's Gaza chief. She said Gazans need 'consistent, sustained access to all essential supplies—not just food and medicine, but also water, fuel, and hygiene items. Without this, humanitarian operations cannot function." In early March, Israel banned the entry of all aid, medicines and other goods into the Gaza Strip after talks to extend the cease-fire stalled. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government says Hamas steals aid and uses it to support its war effort, which the U.S.-designated terrorist group denies. A U.S.-backed aid distribution plan, supported by Israel, is in the works to resume delivering aid from distribution sites across Gaza. Eden Bar Tal, director general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters on Monday that those distribution sites should be operating in a matter of days. The task of getting aid to the people who need it is being complicated by Israel's latest ground and air offensive, adding pressure on Hamas and ordinary Gazans. On Monday, following airstrikes that killed scores of people, Israel ordered residents in the southern city of Khan Younis to evacuate ahead of an 'unprecedented attack." That triggered hundreds of residents to take to the streets to denounce Hamas and urge an end to the war. It was the latest sign of a grassroots movement that is defying Hamas. In other areas, many fled their shelters. Sharif al-Sheikh, a 42-year-old father of two, was displaced for the fifth time since the war began following Hamas' deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hundreds of people have been killed in airstrikes since Friday and more than 53,000 Palestinians have died since the start of the war, according to Gazan health authorities, though their figures don't say how many were combatants. On Tuesday, Sheikh and his family, which included 10 more relatives, were hungry and once again without shelter. 'My wife and I haven't eaten anything for three days," he said. 'My wife gives me bread, but I refuse to eat it. I leave it for the children." The markets have some food, but prices have soared out of his reach, he said. Israel's blockade of Gaza has also meant commercial border crossings have been closed for more than two months. This has resulted in the price of food available in markets rising dramatically—a pack of pasta, for example, is now 35 times what it was before the blockade, according to residents, at around nearly $10 each. Sheikh frequents some of the handful of soup kitchens still operating, often queuing for hours. But even those kitchens are dwindling. In late April, the U.N.'s World Food Program said its food stocks for the kitchens were nearly exhausted. Displaced Palestinians collect cooked food from a community food kitchen. Every morning, in front of Farah Elhelo's building in Gaza City's Tal Al Hawa neighborhood, hungry crowds arrive at a soup kitchen, clutching pots and plastic bags. By noon, the lentils and beans have run out, the line collapses and fights erupt. On Monday, Elhelo heard screams and rushed to her window. 'I saw the crowd pushing, and I saw a child fall head first into one of the cooking pots," she recalled. 'Each day, someone gets burned…hands, feet from the chaos." Despite their dire situation, Marah Zant felt relatively fortunate for the small stockpile of food she had. Many families in her building scrounge for food every day. 'Some houses around us are completely empty," she said. 'People are splitting pieces of bread like treasure. If someone has any, they hide it from others for fear of being envied." Children, weakened by hunger, have stopped playing in her building. She's seen mothers dipping bread in water to make their children feel sated. 'Instead of working or continuing my life, I'm counting how many meals we have left to see if we'll survive the week," she added. Write to Sudarsan Raghavan at
Wall Street Journal
21-05-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Aid Deliveries Do Little to Alleviate Gaza Hunger Crisis
Inside their small apartment in Gaza City this week, Marah Zant and 12 of her relatives had very little food left to eat, just some rice, lentils and a single can of fava beans that they were trying to stretch out for three days. The plan: eat one, very small meal a day. Then they heard that several trucks carrying food aid had entered Gaza for the first time in more than two months. But that news, too, turned into disappointment.
