Voices from Gaza speak about their hunger and ask why has the world turned their backs on them?
Gaza continues to starve. The north of Gaza is experiencing the worst famine thanks to the Israeli blockade and the fact the Biden administration is turning a blind eye and continues to fund the deadly war on Gaza.
The Strip is being attacked from the air, sea and on the ground. The Israeli government is determined to starve the Palestinian population into submission – more like death – in pursuit of Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance fighters.
Meanwhile the world looks on! But since it is the Americans who are mainly funding the war, it should be the White House that should tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant enough is enough!
The social media has been inundated with news of the ongoing starvation campaign of Gaza with many tags on the X platform including #Gaza, #GazaGenocide, #Gaza Genocide, #gazahunger, #SaveGazaFrom Hunger, #Palestine, #FreePalestineFromIsraelNOW.
There is much videos about people starving and dying because of the incessant hunger. These include those posted by Palestinians in the north of Gaza.
‘I haven’t eaten in a week’
“….do you know it has been a week since I last eaten…a whole week without eating anything,” a young man bellows in the videoclip.
“…the price of a bag of flour costs $500 but it’s not available…I’ve been eating hay and barley,” but there is nothing left anymore with his eyes watering.
“…there are no human rights, no women rights, no children rights, no religious rights and no Arab countries have been allowed to send supplies into the Gaza Strip, especially into Gaza City,” he says with a sense of horror.
“…here people have stayed weeks at a time without eating. Can you imagine your mother or your brother without food. This city is under total siege.
If you the occupier [Israel] have a problem with the [Palestinian] resistance, what does that have to do with us, why are you doing this to us. Presently, there is no food and drinks in Gaza City, there are no rights here…”
‘We are eating animal feed but that has run out’
“For the people who don’t know, we, in north Gaza, have been in the last five months without rice, without flour, without vegetables, without any foodstuffs” a young woman says in another videoclip.
“No supplies have been able to reach here, even in the markets there is nothing, we reverted to eating fodder, bird seeds and cat food…
But despite this we said its ok, at least there is something we can eat to block our hunger, despite the fact its taste is bad, and gives us a bellyache. There was simply alternative despite the fact it was animal feed.
I remember what our parents used to say that nobody sleeps hungry, nobody starves to death in his country. But today, every night we sleep hungry. I never thought one day we will go hungry or sleep on an empty stomach.
What have we done to deserve this, what have the children done to deserve this. If we are not killed by the strikes, we will be starved to death.”
‘I have five children to feed’
“It’s been five days now since I last eaten but I can’t find any food. People say they have been grinding animal feed to stay alive but I have not been able to find such fodder to grind,” a man with a large family says.
“I have no way of feeding myself, I have five children but I can’t feed them…
I can’t leave this place, we are under harsh conditions, I am not able to walk down the street, how am I supposed to provide for them.
I hit my kid every night so he could get to sleep, this make me feel bad but what can I do? Just who is going to stand with us.”
‘Final death warning’
“This is the final warning. This is literally the final warning. Journalists in the north [of Gaza] sent us what they are eating and how they can’t find anything to grind to eat,” says another man in a desperate tone.
“The situation is disastrous in a way that the human mind can’t imagine or understand.
We never imagined we would get here as an Islamic and Arab nation to see our people and brothers dying of hunger and we can’t do anything about it. What are you? Who are you?
The people of Jordan and Egypt are not able to pressure for aid to enter the Gaza Strip?
There is in Rafah 1.4 million people on the border of Egypt. They can’t pass over even a bottle of water or even let it enter. What more do you want to see?
Do you have no God, religion, worship, no traditions, no customs, nothing. What are you made of? Who will stay? Who will not offer his soul, his blood, his money, his land, everything he owns for Gaza?”
Dr Marwan Asmar is a writer based in Amman, Jordan
