Woman and daughter dig through rubbish for bits of food in desperate Gaza
With flies buzzing all around them, a woman and her daughter picked through the pile of rubbish bags for scraps of food at the foot of a destroyed building in Gaza City. They find a small pile of cooked rice, a few scraps of bread and a box with some smears of white cheese still inside.
Islam Abu Taeima picks off soggy bits from a piece of bread and puts the dry part in her sack. She will take what she found back to the school where she and hundreds of other families live, boil it, and serve it to her five children, she says.
“We’re dying of hunger. If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Abu Taeima says her family can’t afford anything in the market, where prices have skyrocketed for the little food that remains on sale. She says she has tried going to charity kitchens, but every time, they run out of food before she gets any.
“People are struggling, and no one is going to be generous with you. So collecting from the trash is better.”
The incident is a new sign of the depths of desperation being reached in Gaza, where the population of some 2.3 million has been pushed towards famine by Israel’s nearly three-month blockade.
Where’s the evidence of Hamas stealing Gaza aid?
A veteran humanitarian aid worker says Israel should provide evidence that Hamas is stealing humanitarian relief – the reason Israel claims the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation must take over crucial food distribution for starving Palestinians.
Hardin Lang from Refugees International questioned the reasoning of the need for a new aid group.
“This is not set up to meet the needs of people. It very much feels like it’s been designed to locate people into the south of Gaza – into an area that’s been designated by the Israelis as ‘a humanitarian zone’, as opposed to trying to meet the needs of a very desperate population,” he said.
“If the entire public narrative of this plan is because there’s been strategic aid diversion by Hamas, it would be very helpful to have some evidence of that,” said Lang.
Hamas denies it is looting aid and Lang said even if it is true, the best way around it is to “flood the zone with humanitarian aid”.
“That lowers prices on the black market and turns aid into a non-commodity from the perspective of controlling the community,” he said.
Lang also noted that with so many wounded and malnourished Palestinians, it’s impossible for most to walk long distances and carry back 20kg (44lb) boxes of aid to their families after waiting in long queues in the hot sun.
