An awful irony befell the residents of Gaza last Monday when dawn dawned, marking the start of Ramadan.
In the midst of an impending famine, the holy month had arrived when Muslims fasted during the day.
Five months of conflict had already been suffered by Gazans. Almost everyone in the population already needs food assistance to survive.
According to Dr. Amjad Eleiwa, the deputy head of the emergency department of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, “the people here have already been starving for months.”
“They search the entire city for food in order to survive, but they are unable to find any.”
In reaction to the Hamas strikes on October 7, Israel bombarded Gaza, destroying agriculture and the region’s food supply infrastructure. Enhanced Israeli security checks on delivery, according to aid agencies, have created bottlenecks around aid reaching the population.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the international organization in charge of defining famine, announced on Monday that 1.1 million people—almost half of Gaza’s population—were already experiencing starvation and that the remaining people may experience a famine by July.
The north of Gaza is where the food situation is the worst. Residents there cannot look forward to filling their bellies with iftar, the meal that is served after sundown, or satisfy their hunger with suhoor, the pre-dawn breakfast, unlike in prior Ramadans.
Devastation, death, and the daily struggle to find food have taken the place of street decorations, drummers, and vendors selling sweets. The cost of the meager amount of wheat or flour that is available has increased fivefold.
“I recall the last Ramadan; there was delicious food—juices, dates, milk, everything you could want,” said Nadia Abu Nahel, a 57-year-old mother caring for an extended family of 10 children in Gaza City.
She remarked, “It’s like heaven and hell compared to this year.” “The children are now dreaming of a loaf of bread and are yearning for it. They are getting softer in the bones. They have vertigo and have trouble walking. They’re getting really skinny.”
At least 27 individuals, 23 of them children, have perished in northern Gaza in recent weeks from starvation or dehydration, according to the poverty charity Care. Doctors from numerous northern hospitals say the real figure is probably higher.
A kid between the ages of 10 and 12 who passed away last week during Ramadan, as well as a boy of about four months whose mother was killed, leaving him short, were among those who recently received malnutrition treatment from Dr. Eleiwa at al-Shifa hospital.
The Israeli air strike on the family of 16-year-old Rafeeq Dughmoush in Gaza has left him severely injured and emaciated. Rafeeq and his sister were severely injured when an Israeli air strike hit their home, killing 11 members of the family. Rafeeq was already suffering from malnutrition before the strike, as there was no fruit to eat and food at the markets was all too expensive.
The doctors at al-Shifa have transferred many child malnutrition patients further north to Kamal Adwan hospital, but children have died there in high numbers too. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of paediatrics at Kamal Adwan, said that 21 children had died at the hospital from malnutrition or dehydration in the past four weeks, and there are currently 10 children in an acute condition.
Israel denies intentionally starving Gazans and blames the UN for creating logistical challenges around aid deliveries and Hamas, which Israel says has commandeered aid. The World Food Programme’s senior spokesperson for the Middle East stated that 1.1 million people under the IPC phase 5 are suffering from catastrophic hunger, and more than a third of children under two are acutely malnourished, meaning they are at risk of death.
On Friday, 200 tonnes of food aid provided by the charity World Central Kitchen arrived by barge at a newly built jetty off the coast of Gaza. However, the charitable aid operation has led to accusations against Israel that it has abandoned its humanitarian responsibilities to the civilian population, leaving it up to charities and other nations to step in to fill the void.
(BBC)
