In northern Gaza, famine sets in: ‘We will eat anything’

By Ghada Abdulfattah and Taylor Luck

DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA; AND AMMAN, JORDAN

Searching the sky, or in the fields, even on the streets, residents of the northern Gaza Strip are constantly looking for food – and finding little.

When Ahmed Sawafiri isn’t chasing after parachuted aid packages, the photojournalist and father of seven from the war-torn neighborhood of Tal Hawa in western Gaza City scours the land for grass and wild herbs.

“We have tried everything for food: animal feed, barley, leaves,” he says. “We eat for survival. We will eat anything.”

Under pressure after the deadly strike on World Central Kitchen staff, Israel says it is allowing mass food aid into besieged Gaza via new land and sea routes. But two weeks later, Palestinians in Gaza and aid workers say little has improved on the ground.

As famine sets in, families in northern Gaza, where some 300,000 Palestinians remain, and elsewhere in the strip struggle to eat more than one meal a day. 

Hurdles range from logistical issues to a lack of safety to restrictions imposed by Israel. That means the promised wave of food aid has been little more than a trickle, aid workers say, leaving Gazans struggling to stave off malnourishment and starvation.

As of last week, Israel has begun operating a new crossing into northern Gaza, and is allowing hundreds of aid trucks to enter from Jordan through Israel to Kerem Shalom in the south.

Israel said eight trucks of flour from the World Food Programme entered southern Gaza Thursday in the first delivery of humanitarian aid to pass through the port of Ashdod since the war began.  CONTINUE READING AT THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR