Gaza’s entire population is currently facing unprecedented hunger crisis
People in Gaza have resorted to eating animal feed and grass as Israel continues to block the delivery of aid supplies that include food.
Since December 2023, 100 per cent of the population in Gaza has been facing a hunger crisis due to the ongoing genocide. Today, Gazans are still facing extreme food shortages leading the Strip to famine. The number of deaths in children and adults is increasing due to malnutrition and hunger.
Fifteen children died early this month at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza due to hunger and malnutrition, including 10-year-old Yazan al-Kafarna. Photos of al-Kafarna, who was born with cerebral palsy, circulated the internet before he died on March 4.
Al-Kafarna’s father told CBC News that he could not attain the fresh fruit and foods he needed as there was nowhere to get them in Gaza. He stated, “Before the war, we could get the food he needed. Now all the food that I used to get him before the war is not available.”
According to the European Commission’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who spoke at a Brussels conference on aid for Gaza, “In Gaza, we are no longer on the brink of famine. We are in a state of famine… Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine.”
Diana Sarosi, who is the director of Policy and Campaigns for Oxfam Canada, told CBC News that, “To us, this is definitely a matter of collective punishment to the people of Palestine.”
Sarosi went on to say that, ever since Israel’s siege on Gaza escalated in October, only 15 per cent of aid shipments to Gaza have reached the region. Sarosi also says that Israeli officials conduct “overly stringent” inspections of trucks entering areas like Rafah and Kerem Shalom and frequently send back trucks unnecessarily.
The lack of aid not only prevents Gazans, including infants and children, from accessing food, but also increases their risk of being caught among the fighting as they search for food.
Using food as bait: the flour massacre that killed hundreds of Palestinians
On February 29, Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians waiting for food aid trucks carrying flour southwest of Gaza City. At least 112 Palestinians were killed and more than 75o were wounded.
According to Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul, Israeli tanks also ran over the injured Palestinians and dead bodies. “It is a massacre, on top of the starvation threatening citizens in Gaza,” he reported.
