We drink salt and water to stay standing, to keep ourselves from going dizzy and collapsing. This is what we’ve come to in Gaza, where most people will go without food for three days at a time.
The WFP reported on how the Israeli army opened fire on a crowd of starving civilians rushing an aid convoy in northern Gaza, which killed 90 people. The Israeli army lied and said no one was shot. Eyewitnesses describe a massacre.
Hunger in Gaza is making us long for food that reminds us of ordinary days. A bowl of thin lentil broth might temporarily fill the stomach, but not the soul.
I have risked my life to get food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation centers in Gaza, where Israel opens fire on aid seekers from every direction. I have an impossible choice: slow death from hunger, or gambling my life for a chance of survival.
The Israeli army has killed over 100 Palestinians at the U.S.-run aid distribution centers in Gaza in under two weeks. By now, it follows a predictable script, either denying the massacre or claiming soldiers fired on “suspicious” individuals.
For many in Gaza, the psychological toll of seeing their children go hungry is far worse than the physical exhaustion they feel from malnutrition and scavenging for food.
It is a daily struggle for survival under the Israeli-imposed siege on Gaza. Families are surviving on scraps of bread and contaminated canned food, and my children dream of a simple chicken meal. In a land once full of life, only ashes remain.