GAZA CITY — Mohammed Hassoun rejoiced when Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal, which could bring some semblance of relief to his family after 15 months of devastating war.
The Palestinian man, however, has yet to receive any aid for his displaced family sheltering in a tent in central Gaza.
He described his situation on Tuesday, as he watched images on a nearby television set of aid trucks flowing to Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19.
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According to the terms of the truce, Israel is to allow 600 aid trucks to Gaza every day, half of them to the northern half of the enclave.
The ceasefire paused the most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. In the Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel, Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Israel responded with an air and ground war that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Since the ceasefire went into effect, the United Nations has reported a surge in the daily entry of supplies and humanitarian relief into Gaza. The ceasefire has improved access after the Israeli military pulled out from the east-west Netzarim route which separates northern and southern Gaza. According to the United Nations, more than 376,000 people have returned to their hometowns in northern Gaza over the past two days.
Yet Palestinians have complained that the aid that does get through is far from enough to cover their needs, especially food items: flour, frying oil, sugar, rice and milk.
Hassoun, who was displaced from his house in northern Gaza early in the war, said he hasn’t received aid for months. “We only see trucks carrying aid on the news,” he noted.
No answers
The ceasefire was supposed to provide some relief for his hungry family. “Where does it go?” Hassoun said of the aid. “No one gives us an answer.”
Having lost his job in the construction sector before the war, he can no longer purchase food from the market where prices have skyrocketed — and he relies on charitable kitchens to feed his children.
Without these kitchens which are known as “Takiya,” he said: “We would have died of starvation long ago.”
Fatima Hamouda, a displaced woman, was also waiting for her turn to receive aid. The mother of four has lost her husband in an Israeli airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis.
They used to say that the trucks are being stolen. So where are the trucks going today?
“I spent the whole day running from place to place to save a coupon or food from the soup kitchen. How will I feed my children?” the 40-year-old woman said in an interview. “They used to say that no trucks are coming in, then they said that the trucks are being stolen. So where are the trucks going today? Where is the aid going? We haven’t seen any of it yet.”
An aid worker said dozens of trucks loaded with flour and relief supplies have arrived in the central and southern Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect. But they have yet to be distributed.
He said that aid groups wait for “the displaced to return to their areas of residence, so we can start delivering aid to them.”
Israel has said that t 4,200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza through various crossings during the first week of the ceasefire.
Market revival
Commercial trucks have also been delivered to Gaza, prompting a slight decrease in prices in the markets.
The commercial goods that reappeared in the markets include frozen meat and poultry, vegetables, and chocolate, biscuits, and even soft drinks. But those who don’t have money are outraged.
“My children see the sweets that have spread in the markets and they want them, and I am unable to provide basic needs,” Hamouda, the mother of four, said.
It’s still higher than pre-war prices
Mohsen Obeid, a 40-year-old displaced person from Gaza City, said price hikes are likely to slow down as aid and fuel continue to flow into the strip, and authorities start to control the markets and fight the black market.
“There was no one to hold them accountable or supervise them,” he said of traders before the ceasefire.
Food prices also decreased. A kilogram of flour now costs down from , but it’s still higher than pre-war prices ( per one kilo.) Fuel prices witnessed a noticeable decrease. A liter of diesel dropped from about to . Before the war it cost less than .
