Palestinians in Gaza struggle to feed their children as famine approaches

With famine approaching in Gaza, Palestinians struggle to feed their children, despite spending hours in queues for a few ladles of cooked food and the chance to fill plastic containers with drinkable water after nearly nine months of Israel’s military offensive in the enclave, Reuters has reported. Sometimes there is nothing to queue for in the shattered streets and crowded schools that have been turned into shelters for the vast majority of Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment.

“We found no water, food or drink as you can see,” said Abdel Rahman Khadourah, looking for somewhere to get water in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. “We walk long distances to search for water that is not even available.”

Despite concerted international efforts, the global hunger monitor said this week that Gaza remains at high risk of famine, with about a fifth of the territory’s population still facing “catastrophic” food insecurity. On Wednesday Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said that another child had died from malnutrition and dehydration. Aid organisations say that Israel should do more to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

In a UN-run school in Khan Younis that has been turned into a shelter for displaced people, Umm Feisal Abu Nqera was sitting cross legged on the floor between mattresses, preparing a small meal for herself and her six children. She cut tomatoes into a bowl, stirred a small pan of beans and crushed ingredients in a mortar and pestle. Her young daughters lay nearby, playing listlessly. Her husband fed a baby some liquefied lentils from a bottle.

“If the charity kitchen did not come here for one day, we would wonder about what we will eat that day,” she said. The beans came from the kitchen. Food prices in Gaza are very high and her family has had no income since the war began last October.

“We are living the worst days of our lives in terms of famine and deprivation,” said Umm Feisal, comparing the family’s existence before the conflict, when they were able to feed their children well and even give them pocket money. “Today your son looks at you and you bleed from within, because you cannot provide him with his most basic rights and the simplest needs for his life.”

Workers from the charity kitchen this week led their donkey cart through the rubble of a destroyed Khan Younis street crowded with people on their way to a UN school shelter. They used a paddle to stir two large vats of food before ladling out dollops of yellow lentils to a line of children queuing with saucepans to take to their families.

The war began after the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, carried out a cross-border incursion on 7 October. Around 1,200 people were killed, many of them by “friendly fire” from the Israel Defence Forces. Around 250 Israelis were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel’s military offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza has since killed at least 37,765 Palestinians and wounded more than 80,000, as well as displaced most of the 2.3 million residents from their homes. Most civilian infrastructure has been destroyed, including hospitals.

South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in a case at the International Court of Justice, which it denies. Moreover, the Israeli government has ignored orders by the ICJ to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.

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