[News] ‘They scream in hunger’ – How Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

aljazeera.com
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/26/they-scream-in-hunger-how-israel-is-starving-palestinians-in-gaza>
‘They scream in hunger’ – How Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza
Maram Humaid, Abdelhakim Abu Riash, Alia Chughtai
March 26, 2024
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Maysoon al-Nabahin squeezes out the last bit of cartoned cheese onto a
freshly baked piece of bread, knowing it will be the only thing her family
of eight will eat that day.

Umm Muhammed, as she's known, fled from a school in Bureij where she,
together with her husband and six children, were sheltering after Israeli
forces destroyed their home in east Bureij in central Gaza.

The 45-year-old now lives in the crowd of tents around Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Hospital in Deir el-Balah further south. She’s a petite woman, her face
etched with worry, looking older than her years.

In the centre of their plastic makeshift tent is a small fire where Umm
Muhammed is making flatbread on a woodfire saj oven. She’s surrounded by a
few neatly arranged backpacks containing the belongings her family managed
to bring, as well as a pile of blankets, now cleared away to make space for
their daytime living.

[image: Interactive_Nabahin_COVER REVISED HORIZONTAL]
[Photo: Abdelhakim Abu Raish/Al Jazeera] [Illustrations: Maaz Jan/Al
Jazeera]
‘Bread and cartoned cheese’

“[We are eating] the same thing, canned food, cartoned cream cheese and
fava beans. We heat them over the fire to eat. Sugar used to be available
but now it has become expensive. We make tea with dukkah [a type of dried
herb] or thyme… it makes do," Umm Muhammed tells Al Jazeera under the
buzzing sound of Israeli drones above.

There is no fresh food. Only cans and cartons.

And it is not enough for everyone.

Like many parents across Gaza, Umm Muhammed and her husband often go hungry
to ensure their children have something to eat. Most of her children are
young and in their development stages.

Many times we go hungry, the children must eat.

by Maysoon al-Nabahin

“The sweets and biscuits that were distributed [by aid agencies], when the
children ate it, they immediately had diarrhoea. There isn’t space or water
to bathe, or go to the bathroom in privacy or clean the little children
when they have diarrhoea,” she laments.

Despite how difficult life is, Umm Muhammed has a sense of gratitude. Her
children ask her for things to eat or food they miss, but she says they
have adapted. Whether food or going to the bathroom, they have found a way
to survive.

For three days, before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Al Jazeera
followed the al-Nabahin family, recording their daily food intake to
document how they, like many other families in Gaza, are surviving on the
bare minimum.

Day 1

On the first day, Umm Hassan prepared some mashed potatoes, canned luncheon
meat, olives and a few pieces of flatbread.

Shared among 11 family members, each person would be lucky if they managed
to eat more than 400 calories, less than half what is needed for young
children, and a fifth of what an adult would normally need to maintain
their weight.

Food is very expensive. “One egg costs 2 shekels ($0.55). We crave eggs but
... thank God [for what we have],” she says.

The price of an egg has since gone up to 6 shekels ($1.64).

[image: Interactive_AbuIssa_Day1]
Day 2

On the second day, the family shares a bowl of canned white beans, which
they got using an aid coupon, a little tomato paste added for flavour, and
some bread.

“We make tea but without sugar. My husband wanted sugar in his tea, but I
told him we must endure and be patient,” Umm Hassan smiles knowingly.

[image: Interactive_AbuIssa_Day2]
Day 3

On the third day, the Abu Issa family will eat their largest meal yet.
Today’s feast consists of rice and peas and some pasta with tomato sauce
which they receive from a food distribution hospice.

Even on a good day, at around 570 calories per person, this is still around
half of what a child would need per day.

[image: Interactive_AbuIssa2_DAY 3 REVISED]
No normal-sized babies

"Doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies," UNFPA
official Dominic Allen told journalists after visiting hospitals still
providing maternity services in the north of Gaza, where the need is
especially great.

"What they do see though, tragically, is more stillborn births... and more
neonatal deaths, caused in part by malnutrition, dehydration and
complications," Allen added.

[image: Interactive_Hunger-Gaza_10-02_REVISED-1711385890]

The numbers of complicated deliveries are roughly twice what they were
before the war with Israel began - with mothers stressed, fearful, underfed
and exhausted - and caregivers often lacking necessary supplies.

“People are desperate for food … you can understand how hard it is for a
mother or a father to see their kids starving and not be able to sustain
them … that is why UN agencies are pushing for more access to the north,"
Noor Hammad, a communications assistant at the WFP who oversees food
deliveries, told Al Jazeera.

"The needs are dire and more needs to be done.”
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