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Asharq Al-Awsat
23-05-2025
- General
- Asharq Al-Awsat
No One Spared: How Gazans Struggle to Find Food
As the clock strikes noon, Waheed Abu Sabeeh calls out to his seven-year-old daughter, Bisan, handing her a small pot and urging her to hurry. Just a few dozen meters from their tent, a charitable kitchen offers a lifeline: a single serving of cooked food in Gaza's al-Shati (Beach) refugee camp. Abu Sabeeh, 47, was displaced from his home in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. He now lives with his wife and five children in a makeshift tent no larger than four square meters, pitched near an UNRWA school-turned-shelter in western Gaza City. Like thousands of others driven from their homes by war and poverty, Abu Sabeeh has little to feed his family. 'We survive on what the charity kitchen gives us,' he says, his voice weary. 'If it weren't for them, my children would sleep hungry.' Each day, Bisan, who should be in a classroom, joins a long queue of women, children, and men, clutching empty containers. The charity serves up modest portions of lentils, beans, peas, or rice, around 400 grams per person, with no extras. For nearly 90 minutes each day, sometimes even longer, seven-year-old Bisan waits in line under the sun, clutching a small pot outside a charity tent in Gaza's al-Shati refugee camp. On other days, she heads out early, hoping to beat the crowds. 'I go get the food to help my family eat because we have nothing at home,' she says in a soft, innocent voice. The food she brings back rarely stretches beyond one modest meal. On days when the kitchen runs out, the family makes do with bits of zaatar or hummus, sometimes without even bread. Her father used to run a small children's goods shop in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. But Israeli airstrikes destroyed his store and home nearly a year ago, leaving him and his family with nothing but a tent and the daily uncertainty of survival. 'Bisan waits for hours to bring back just a few spoonfuls,' the father told Asharq Al-Awsat. 'Sometimes she comes back empty-handed. Sometimes she gets caught in fights with other children, all pushing for food.' According to Bisan's dad, her behavior has changed. 'She's louder now, more aggressive,' he said. 'She pushes to the front. She shouts. She's learned that if she doesn't fight for it, she might not eat.' In Gaza, Mothers Wait Hours for a Ladle of Lentils Every day, 51-year-old Faten al-Masri clutches a cooking pot and joins a long line of people hoping to receive a small portion of lentils or rice from a charity kitchen in Gaza's devastated al-Rimal neighborhood. Originally from Beit Hanoun in the north, al-Masri and her 13-member family have been living in a tent for months, displaced by war. With no flour available, they eat whatever the kitchen provides, often without bread or any other accompaniment. 'Some days, I wait more than three hours just to get a little food,' she told Asharq Al-Awsat, her voice heavy with exhaustion. 'There's no flour, no extras. Just whatever they're offering. That's all we have.' Despite her chronic diabetes and the pain of standing for long periods, al-Masri says she has no choice but to endure the wait. 'My children are busy - one fetching water, another looking for something else,' she said. 'I go because I must. I'm sick, but I can't let my family go hungry. We have nothing.' Her words echo the desperation felt across the Gaza Strip, where hunger, displacement, and the collapse of basic services have forced even the elderly and infirm to queue for survival. Charity kitchens across Gaza - once a critical lifeline for displaced families - are now buckling under mounting pressure, with some scaling back portions and others halting operations entirely, Asharq Al-Awsat has observed. Once able to feed hundreds daily, several kitchens have begun rationing the limited supplies they receive. Others have shuttered altogether, unable to keep up with the soaring demand and dwindling resources. These kitchens are operated by a mix of international organizations, UN agencies, Arab charities, and local youth-led initiatives. But aid workers warn the situation is spiraling into what they describe as 'more than catastrophic,' as war, displacement, and a deepening blockade leave thousands at risk of starvation. Ali Matar, who helps run a charity kitchen in western Gaza, an area now crammed with displaced families from the north, says the food crisis is reaching a breaking point. 'There's a clear shortage of canned goods, rice, lentils, and other staples,' Matar told Asharq Al-Awsat. 'Suppliers are running out, and that's severely affecting our ability to cook and distribute meals. Hunger is tightening its grip on Gaza.' The soaring cost of what little food remains, such as beans, peas, and rice, is making it increasingly difficult for donors to sustain operations. Matar said the strain is pushing some humanitarian groups to shut down their kitchens entirely, as their storage shelves lie empty. 'Some of the Arab-funded and charitable organizations are now pooling resources just to keep cooking,' he said. 'But if this crisis isn't addressed soon, the consequences will be catastrophic. We could see dozens dying of hunger every week.' Under mounting international pressure to halt its military campaign in Gaza and allow aid in, Israel recently said it would permit the entry of 'essential' humanitarian supplies. Aid groups, however, say the announcement comes too late with assistance blocked since March 2 and needs growing exponentially.
BBC News
20-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Gaza baby sent back to war zone after open-heart surgery in Jordan
In a makeshift tent in al-Shati refugee camp, in the north of the Gaza Strip, 33-year-old Enas Abu Daqqa holds her tiny baby daughter Niveen in her arms. A fan hums constantly behind her to break the morning worries that Niveen's health might deteriorate at any point. She is only seven months old, and was born during the war with a hole in her her mother explains how she struggled to keep her alive amid a collapsing health system in Gaza, Niveen, with her big brown eyes and tiny frame, cries and fidgets."The war has been very tough for her," Enas tells the BBC. "She wasn't gaining any weight, and she would get sick so easily."Niveen's only chance to survive was to receive urgent care outside Gaza. And in early March, Jordan made that a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel held, 29 sick Gazan children, including Niveen, were evacuated to Jordan to receive treatment in the country's hospitals. Her mother and older sister were brought out with were the first children evacuated to Jordan after King Abdullah announced plans to treat 2,000 sick Gazan children in hospitals there during a visit to the US the previous month. These evacuations were co-ordinated with the Israeli authorities who do background checks on the parents travelling with their in Jordan performed successful open-heart surgery on Niveen, and she was slowly beginning to about two weeks into the children's treatment, the ceasefire in Gaza collapsed when Israel resumed its offensive against Hamas, and the war was back on, in full weeks, Enas followed the news from her daughter's hospital room in Jordan, worrying about the safety of her husband and other children who were still in then late at night on 12 May, the Jordanian authorities told Enas they were sending her and her family back to Gaza the following day, as they said Niveen had completed her was shocked."We left while there was a ceasefire. How could they send us back after the war had restarted?" she says, frustrated. Enas is now reunited with her husband and children in Gaza. They say Niveen did not complete her treatment before she was sent back, and they worry that her condition could get worse."My daughter is in a very bad condition that could lead to her death," says Enas. "She has heart disease. Sometimes she suffocates and turns blue. She can't continue living in a tent."On 13 May, Jordan announced that it had sent 17 children back to Gaza "after completing their treatment". And the next day, a new group of four sick children were evacuated from Gaza to Jordanian authorities have told the BBC that all children sent back were in good medical condition, rejecting claims that they did not complete their treatment. The authorities noted that the kingdom was clear from the beginning about its intention to send the children back once they were better, adding that this was necessary "for logistical and political reasons"."Jordan's policy is to keep Palestinians on their land, and not to contribute to their displacement outside their territory," a foreign ministry statement sent to the BBC said. The return of the 17 children would also allow for more sick children to be evacuated from Gaza, it an official in the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza told the BBC the children still needed care, and that their return to the war endangered their lives. 'Forced back' This is exactly what worries 30-year-old Nihaya Bassel. Her son, Mohammed, who is just over a year old, suffers from asthma and serious food allergies. She believes her son did not receive the full treatment he deserved."We're back to living in fear and hunger, surrounded by death," Nihaya says as her eyes fill up with tears. "How can I get this child the milk that he needs to drink? He doesn't eat even though he's just over a year old, because if he eats, he will immediately get sick."Israel imposed a strict siege on the Gaza Strip 11 weeks ago, cutting off all supplies including food, medicine, shelter and fuel. It said this and the resumed offensive were meant to put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages still held in Gaza. International organisations warn that Palestinians living there are at "critical risk of famine". On Monday, Israel announced it would allow a "minimal" amount of food into Gaza following US pressure. The UN welcomed the crossing of five lorries carrying aid including baby food, but called it "a drop in the ocean". Nihaya is now living in a small, tented area in al-Shati camp with her brother-in-law's family. Her husband and three other children had fled there from elsewhere in northern Gaza, escaping heavy Israeli strikes as the war restarted while she was in Jordan."I left my children here. I left my husband here. They went through hell while I was away," Nihaya says as she bursts into tears. "My mind and heart were constantly with them in Gaza while I was in Jordan. All of this so that my child could get treated. Why force me back before finishing his treatment?"As she speaks, the sounds of Israeli surveillance drones drown out her voice. Her toddler runs around next to her, at times almost stumbling into a smoky open fire in the tent that the family uses for cooking struggles to contain her anger as she recounts her journey back to Gaza."We didn't leave [till] 04:00, and didn't arrive in Gaza till 22:45," she says. As they reached the border crossing, Nihaya says they were harassed by Israeli security forces."They started cursing at us. They threatened to beat us. They took all our money. They took our mobile phones, our bags and everything," she says, noting that they confiscated all the bags of anyone who had cash on said the same thing happened to her, noting that her medical supplies were confiscated Israeli army told the BBC that they confiscated "undeclared cash exceeding normal limits" from Gazans returning from Jordan due to suspicions that they would be "used for terrorism within Gaza". It notes that the money is being held while circumstances are has not given a reason for why other personal belongings were says she has come back from Jordan "empty-handed"; even her son's medical records were in the bags that the Israeli security forces took away, she says it has given children like Niveen and Mohammed the best healthcare it can offer, and both families acknowledge this. But they worry that a life in one of the world's deadliest war zones for children will just undo all the progress their children have made over the past two months."I got my son to a point where I was very happy to see him like that," Nihaya says through her tears. "Now they want to bring him back to square one? I don't want my son to die." Edited by Alexandra Fouché
