Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

[SvennoJ]

Desperate scenes: Gaza people and the fight for food

In Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, desperate families pushed and shoved at food distribution sites to reach steaming vats of soup.

“We are eight people. I need to provide them with a bite of food,” said Faten al-Sabbagh. “I wish I can find even bread, but there is nothing and we are unable to. The prices are high and there are no salaries.”

Gaza’s community kitchens, distributing meals for thousands, are shuttering. Farmland is mostly inaccessible. Bakeries have closed. Water distribution is grinding to a halt, largely because of a lack of fuel.

In desperate scenes, thousands, many of them Palestinian children, crowd outside community kitchens fighting over food.

The top United Nations court on Friday wrapped a week of hearings on what Israel must do to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Gaza looting intensifies after two months of Israeli blockade

Warehouses in northern Gaza have been looted, including by armed groups, as desperation for aid spikes after more than two months of Israel’s total blockade.

Aid groups have warned that Gaza’s civilian population is facing starvation, and there is concern that the desperation could lead to a breakdown of law and order. While there have been incidents of looting by armed gangs throughout the war, aid workers say this week’s incidents mark an escalation, with it being less organised and reaching urban areas.

Israel has blocked any humanitarian aid from entering the territory since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended the ceasefire with Hamas in March.

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees said its staff were evacuated after thousands of Palestinians breached its Gaza City field office Wednesday and took medications. Louise Wateridge, a senior emergency officer at UNRWA, called the looting “the direct result of unbearable and prolonged deprivation”.