<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" lang="en" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/26/they-scream-in-hunger-how-israel-is-starving-palestinians-in-gaza">aljazeera.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">‘They scream in hunger’ – How Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Maram Humaid, Abdelhakim Abu Riash, Alia Chughtai</div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">March 26, 2024<br></div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w"><p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-longform-hero"><div class="gmail-longform-hero__content"><h2 class="gmail-longform-hero__title gmail-longform-hero__title--large"></h2><p class="gmail-longform-hero__summary"></p></div><div class="gmail-longform-hero__background-media gmail-longform-hero__background-media--desktop"><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Interactive_Nabahin3-01-1711386156.jpg?resize=1920%2C1080&quality=80" alt="Interactive_Nabahin_COVER REVISED HORIZONTAL" width="395" height="222" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered gmail-longform-hero__caption gmail-longform-hero__caption--desktop">[Photo: Abdelhakim Abu Raish/Al Jazeera] [Illustrations: Maaz Jan/Al Jazeera]</div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w"><h2 id="gmail-bread-and-cartoned-cheese">‘Bread and cartoned cheese’</h2>
<p>“[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.</p>
<p>There is no fresh food. Only cans and cartons.</p>
<p>And it is not enough for everyone.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p lang="en">
Many times we go hungry, the children must eat. </p>
<p class="gmail-quote-author">
<span class="gmail-screen-reader-text">by</span> Maysoon al-Nabahin </p>
</blockquote>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</div></div></div></div></div></div>
<div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-container"><div class="gmail-container__inner"><div class="gmail-l-col gmail-l-col--8--centered"><div class="gmail-longform-text"><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-css-1kw180w"><p></p>
</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-longform-block"><div class="gmail-longform-hero"><div class="gmail-longform-hero__content"><h2 class="gmail-longform-hero__title gmail-longform-hero__title--large"></h2><p class="gmail-longform-hero__summary"></p></div><div class="gmail-longform-hero__background-media gmail-longform-hero__background-media--desktop"><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Interactive_Nabahin3-05-1711364835.jpg?resize=1920%2C1080&quality=80" alt="" width="395" height="222" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div></div></div></div>
<h3>Day 1</h3>
<p>On the first day, Umm Hassan prepared some mashed potatoes, canned luncheon meat, olives and a few pieces of flatbread.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Food is very expensive. “One egg costs 2 shekels ($0.55). We crave eggs but ... thank God [for what we have],” she says.</p>
<p>The price of an egg has since gone up to 6 shekels ($1.64).</p>
<p><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Interactive_AbuIssa2-02-1711366920.jpg?w=770&quality=80" alt="Interactive_AbuIssa_Day1" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="395" height="395" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p>
<h3>Day 2</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Interactive_AbuIssa2-03-1711366868.jpg?w=770&quality=80" alt="Interactive_AbuIssa_Day2" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="395" height="395" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p>
<h3>Day 3</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Even on a good day, at around 570 calories per person, this is still around half of what a child would need per day.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Interactive_AbuIssa2-04-1711386069.jpg?w=770&quality=80" alt="Interactive_AbuIssa2_DAY 3 REVISED" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="395" height="395" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p>
<h2 id="gmail-no-normal-sized-babies">No normal-sized babies</h2>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"What they do see though, tragically, is more stillborn births... and
more neonatal deaths, caused in part by malnutrition, dehydration and
complications," Allen added.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Interactive_Hunger-Gaza_10-02_REVISED-1711385890.jpg?w=770&quality=80" alt="Interactive_Hunger-Gaza_10-02_REVISED-1711385890" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="395" height="395" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>"The needs are dire and more needs to be done.”</p>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>