Mohammed Alyan described what 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing right now: “There is nothing to protect us from the cold,” said the father of seven. “And we can’t find food.”
The Israel-Hamas war, which entered its fourth month this week, has forced residents of Gaza City and the northern parts of the Strip to flee their destroyed homes to seek shelter elsewhere.
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
Gaza is in a state of palpable and tragic scarcity; citizens’ daily needs are not being met as winter’s coldest days arrive.
Panic has grown among displaced people, who have found that their tents don’t ward off the cold, and humanitarian aid doesn’t end the risk of starvation.
We lost all of our clothes
Alyan said the situation in Gaza is “dark and complicated.”
“We just have a few clothes to protect us from the cold,” said Alyan, whose children’s clothes were left in their now-destroyed house. “I tried to buy some used clothes because there was no alternative. Our bodies no longer tolerate the cold due to lack of food,” he said, adding that many eat only one meal a day.
“Gaza’s people now live at the mercy of the world’s governments”
Saed Al-Sayed, who was displaced from Al-Shati refugee camp in central Gaza, said he spent two nights outdoors before a man gave him a tent.
“But that did not end our tragedy. It is complicated to find food. Gaza’s people now live at the mercy of the world’s governments.”
Since the war began, calls have come from around the world to open the Rafah crossing with Egypt and other crossings with Israel to increase the delivery of aid to meet the population’s growing needs. Israel’s military, however, has ignored these calls and continued its blockade.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has repeatedly warned of the risk of famine in Gaza.
More aid trucks needed
The Government Media Office in Gaza has appealed to countries around the world for help, calling for urgent intervention to save what remained of the Strip. Media Office Director Ismail Thawabtah said Gaza City and northern Gaza have witnessed an alarming scarcity of necessities including food and shelter. These areas face “real famine,” he said, blaming the international community, the United States and Israel for the disaster. He called for countries to pressure Israel to facilitate the work of the Rafah crossing and reopen all other crossings to deliver urgently needed aid. He said Gaza needs 1,000 aid trucks daily to meet the needs of some 700,000 people in Gaza City and the north.
There is “serious danger,” of acute hunger
A spokesman for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said Israel’s military aims to paralyze relief institutions in Gaza, adding that aid convoys were repeatedly targeted despite coordination with the Israeli military. He said Gaza receives an average of 65 trucks each day, compared to 500 trucks before the war.
The head of the Government Media Office in Gaza said 5,119 trucks were allowed into Gaza from October 21 to December 31. He said 359 planes carrying aid for Gaza landed in Egypt’s Al-Arish airport but most have yet to be allowed to the Strip.
Hisham Mhanna, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, said heavy winter clothing must be provided to children and adults alike, especially to displaced people whose homes were destroyed.
“The potential catastrophic effects of rain on refugee camps and shelter centers are beyond solution due to the collapse of the infrastructure,” he said, adding the conditions pose serious environmental and health conditions that “will leave long-term impacts on all citizens.”
Disease risks
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there is “serious danger,” of acute hunger and despair spreading across the war-wrecked Strip.
According to a WHO statement, the need for food “remains dire” and staff said that “hungry people stopped our convoys again today in the hope of obtaining food.” The agency’s “ability to provide medicines, medical supplies and fuel to hospitals is increasingly constrained; because of the hunger and desperation of people heading to the hospitals we reach and those inside them,” the statement said.
The U.N. Security Council resolution providing for the safe, unhindered and widespread delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza remains unimplemented, with no current step to save the Strip from famine and cold.
Starvation as a weapon
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called for international action to stop Israel from turning Gaza into a cemetery, “the largest for children in modern history.”
Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations on the ground condemned Israel’s use of starvation as a “weapon of war“ and insisted on the necessity of an immediate ceasefire.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestine Monetary Authority said in a joint statement that poverty in Gaza has risen to dangerous levels and that consumption declined by 80% in Gaza during the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year.
