Refugees receive aid food in Rafah, Gaza Strip, December 21, 2023. Visual China.
Comprehensive compilation by Zhao Tingting.
In Gaza, if you ask a person, "What did you eat yesterday?" "The answer won't be long. A father bought two packets of cheese and some biscuits; Another father brought home 1 can of beans; Some mothers who can't find food collect weeds to feed their children. People here depend on food from the United Nations and other aid agencies to survive.
In December 2023, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reported that 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip have suffered severe food insecurity since the start of the current round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with more than 25% of households in a state of "extreme hunger".
On January 5, 2024, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, warned that famine in Gaza was "imminent" given the current situation.
In the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, Mahmoud Harala, 47, huddled into a makeshift tent with eight members of his family. "[The food**] was beyond my imagination, and I couldn't even satisfy the children's need for a slice of bread. Harala, who was looking for food on the streets, told CNN helplessly. She used to be a vendor selling produce on wheelbarrows, and now she lives in makeshift tents with no mattresses, let alone heating. With toilets requiring a walk to the hospital 3 kilometres away, and drinking water is hard to come by, she wonders why life is the way it is.
Abu Mispah, a 51-year-old construction worker, struggles to support his family of 10. He told CNN: "My life is all about begging and asking people for help. ”
In the Gaza Strip, most food products** have risen more than four times as high as before the conflict, and medicines are harder to come by, CNN reported. Many people choose to starve themselves and leave food for their children.
The British Daily Telegraph reported that infants and young children are most at risk. They are not very resistant and highly dependent on nutrition. Studies have shown that if babies don't have enough energy** in the first 1,000 days of life, it can cause them to stunt their growth and be affected for life.
Poor nutrition makes Gaza's immune system very weak, and the crowded, dirty environment allows the disease to spread faster. According to the World Health Organization, there have been 180,000 cases of respiratory infections in the Gaza Strip,13640,000 cases of diarrhoea, 5540,000 cases related to lice, scabies, etc. Only about one-third of the hospitals are barely able to keep afloat, and hospitals in the south are operating at three times their original capacity. In these hospitals, there is a serious shortage of essential medicines.
For many families, "the threat of dying from hunger is real," according to UN Children**.
Over the past 20 years, I have witnessed many conflicts, but the scale, magnitude and speed of events are unprecedented. Arif Hussein, chief economist of the United Nations World Food Programme, called the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip one of the worst he had ever seen.
The ground offensive of the Israeli army continues. Human rights observers have accused Israel of "collective punishment" of civilians in Gaza for Hamas's actions. Juliette Douma, communications director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, called the blockade of the Gaza Strip a "silent killer" of civilians.
According to the New York Times, in the face of the international community's condemnation of Israel for blocking aid into Gaza, Israeli spokesman Elon Levy said that the reason for the current situation is that Hamas "steals supplies" and the United Nations and charities do not send more food and water.
In response, the Director-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Filipe Lazarini, said that blaming the international community for the lack of aid in Gaza was "baseless misinformation". Israel's imposition of aid access restrictions, lengthy inspections, bans on the delivery of goods to markets and private businesses, and damage to vehicles carrying goods have made logistical difficulties a reality.
Azmi Keshawi, an analyst at the nonprofit International Crisis Group, said the daily search for food was an ordeal. In Rafah, vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables can no longer be found. A bag of flour used to be around $13 and now soars to $138 to $165.
Vala Zait has four hungry children, and as a mother, she can't do anything. Zait cried that they were "struggling every day".
These people fled from their homes without a penny, and now their survival is a problem. Keshawi told The New York Times.
On the evening of December 31, 2023, Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian, raised his hands and said to his brother and sister: "Imagine that I have a cake in my hand, and you can make a wish." "Accompanied by New Year's songs, they enter the new year with sadness.
*: China Youth Daily client.