[News] Flour soaked in blood: ‘Flour Massacre’ survivors tell their story

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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Flour soaked in blood: ‘Flour Massacre’ survivors tell their story By Tareq
S. Hajjaj <https://mondoweiss.net/author/tareqhajjaj/> March 4, 2024
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/flour-soaked-in-blood/>
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[image: 030324_Dair_EL-Balah_RA_00-4-770x515.jpg]

Palestinians inspect the remains of a heavily damaged humanitarian aid
vehicle destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. The airstrike also killed nine
Palestinians and injured dozens, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on March 3, 2024.
(Photo: Ramadan El-Agha/APA Images)

In less than a week, Israel has committed several massacres against the
hungry. On Sunday, March 3, Israel bombed an aid convoy, killing 7 people.
But the most infamous incident was on February 29, in what has come to be
known as the “flour massacre” on al-Rashid Street, near the Nabulsi
roundabout west of Gaza City. Israel killed over 115 starving people on
that day, while over 750 people were injured.

Faris Elewya, 52, a resident of the Sha’af area east of Gaza City, told
*Mondoweiss* what he saw. When he left his house, only two reasons
justified braving the warzone that was northern Gaza. The first was the
image of his starving family, made up of five children, and the second was
the hope of returning with some flour to show for his trouble.

“I left the house not knowing what day it was,” he said. “And I don’t know
what day it is now as I talk to you.”

“I had heard that anyone who goes to the Nabulsi area west of Gaza can find
the aid trucks passing through the north. I didn’t hesitate. Even if I was
taking a risk, it’s better than watching my family starve to death,” he
continued.

After walking for three hours, he reached the Nabulsi roundabout, where he
found throngs of people already waiting for the convoy to arrive. There was
hardly any room left for people to move, as some had brought their entire
families with them to try and carry as much aid as they could get their
hands on. Some had set up camp in the area the night before — the Nabulsi
roundabout has become the first stop for any aid convoy arriving in the
north — and had gathered stray firewood to keep warm as they waited.

Near the roundabout was an Israeli checkpoint guarded by several military
vehicles. The army had placed its checkpoints at Gaza City’s two main
entrances, the Nabulsi roundabout on Gaza’s coastline, and another site
near the Kuwaiti roundabout on Salah al-Din Street. This convoy’s
designated route passed through the coastal road.

“People gathered in the vicinity of the vehicles, given their proximity to
the gathering point,” Eleywa said. “But no one wanted to do anything to the
tanks or the soldiers. Everyone there had only one objective: to find food
for their families.”

“Usually, people receive aid by taking it off the trucks that pass
through,” he added. “But this time, when the trucks entered, people swarmed
the trucks in hysteria because of the famine.”

Eleywa said that hundreds of people were pushed through the checkpoint to
the southern side due to the chaos from the pushing and shoving.

“Suddenly, hundreds of people found themselves on the south side of the
checkpoint, with everyone else on the north side,” he explained. “The
checkpoint split the crowd in two.”

When this happened, the soldiers prevented those who had entered the
checkpoint from passing back to the northern side, opening fire on the
crowd.

“Those who were able to make it back to the northern side managed to do so
by crawling and hiding,” Eleywa continued.

International observers, including UN officials, visited the injured
survivors at al-Shifa’ Hospital, confirming that the majority of wounds
from the hundreds of injured people were due to live ammunition.
*‘The hunger eats away at our stomachs’*

The aid that enters northern Gaza is stained with blood, as Israel’s use of
food as a weapon of war reaches new heights. But people still brave these
conditions because they have no other choice.

“It’s been forty days, and none of my children has seen the sight of
bread,” Eleywa said. “I and two of my older sons spend the entire day
searching for food, and by the end of the day, we come up short and return
home together. The whole family sits together in the night’s darkness. The
hunger eats away at our stomachs.”

“Nothing is worse than that,” Eleywa remarked emphatically. “The danger we
face in trying to get flour is nothing compared to how we feel on those
nights.”

But instead of returning home with food in tow that day, he returned
frightened and shaking, hardly believing that he was able to survive the
bullets that had whizzed past his body and hit others beside him.

The last time Faris Eleywa ate with his family was two days before speaking
to *Mondoweiss*. “We had received two cans of fava beans,” he explained.
“My wife put them on a plate, and we ate them plain, without bread.”

“With the blink of an eye, the plate was gone,” he said ruefully. “The food
was so little that it vanished in seconds.”
‘I grabbed the food and crawled through the dirt’

The people of northern Gaza live in unimaginable conditions. Hunger and
thirst are quickly threatening to be more dangerous to people than the
incessant airstrikes. In such times, a family that hasn’t eaten in three
days is far from rare. You are even likely to find some who haven’t eaten
for a week.

Ahmad Imteiz, 28, lived with his wife and three children in the Zeiytoun
area but fled to the Rimal neighborhood after their neighborhood was
re-invaded by Israeli ground forces. He was also present during the Nabulsi
roundabout incident and was able to return to his home carrying some food
for his family.

“I don’t know how to explain to my children that we don’t have food.”
Ahmad Imteiz

“I got to the Nabulsi roundabout at 10 a.m.,” Imteiz told *Mondoweiss*. “I
waited for the convoys as the number of people there swelled to the
thousands.”

“Then a few trucks arrived. One truck was carrying canned foods. Another
was carrying frozen chicken. People rushed the trucks before they even
reached the Israeli checkpoint,” he recounted.

Most of the people surrounding the trucks were shot dead or injured. Ahmad
was able to return home carrying four cans of fava beans and a single
chicken he had managed to grab.

“I grabbed the food and crawled through the dirt,” Ahmad explained. “I
crawled for a very long time. I crossed almost a kilometer until I reached
a safer place where I could get up and run.”

Ahmad did not hesitate when asked whether the trek was worth it. “Yes,” he
answered. “To save my hungry children, yes.”

“Our lives must have become so meaningless and cheap for so many people to
die this way,” he observed bitterly. “Children die, women die, families
die. All from hunger.”

“I don’t know how to explain to my children that we don’t have food,” Ahmad
said. “I don’t know how to face them and tell them they will continue to go
hungry. I would rather face death than have to tell them that.”


Tareq S. Hajjaj

Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of the
Palestinian Writers Union. He studied English Literature at Al-Azhar
University in Gaza. He started his career in journalism in 2015 working as
a news writer and translator for the local newspaper, Donia al-Watan. He
has reported for *Elbadi*, *Middle East Eye*, and *Al Monitor*. Follow him
on Twitter at @Tareqshajjaj <https://twitter.com/Tareqshajjaj>.
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