Bird bread and dates wrapped in gauze: what children in the Gaza Strip eat
- February 26, 2024
- 0
Surviving on sour bread made from animal feed instead of flour, three brothers who fled their home in Gaza City to take shelter in a tent further south
Surviving on sour bread made from animal feed instead of flour, three brothers who fled their home in Gaza City to take shelter in a tent further south ate halawa, a crumbly sweet pastry.
Seraj Shehadafrom 8 yearsAnd him Brothers Ismailfrom 9And Saadfrom eleventhey said they fled secretly to take refuge with their aunt in her shop in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, because there was nothing to eat in the city.
“When we were in A loopwe didn’t eat anything. We ate every other day“Says Seraj Shehada as three children eat halawa straight from the bathtub, with a spoon.
“We ate bird food and donkey food, whatever,” he said, referring to bread made from grains and seeds intended for animal consumption.
Food shortages have been a problem throughout the Palestinian enclave since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, but are particularly severe in the Palestinian enclave. north Gazawhere aid supplies have been scarce for a long time.
Photo: Reuters
Some of the few aid trucks to reach the north were surrounded by crowds of desperate and hungry people, and aid workers reported seeing thin, visibly hungry people with sunken eyes.
In central Gaza the situation is slightly better, but far from simple.
In the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, north of Deir el-Balah, Warda Mattar is a displaced mother sheltering with her in a school. two month old babyI let him suck date wrapped in cheesecloth, lack of milk.
“My son is supposed to drink milk when he is a newborn, whether it is natural milk or formula, but I could not give him milk because there is no milk in Gaza,” Mattar said. “I went on dates to appease my son,” she added.
“A small loaf every two days”
In the tent of Deir al-Balah, three brothers said they lost their mother, another brother and several aunts at war. They were left with their father and grandmother and had little to eat except bread made from animal feed, said older brother Saad Shehada.
“It was bittersweet. We didn’t want to eat it. They made us eat it a small loaf every two days“He said, adding that they drank salty water and they got sick, and there was no way to wash themselves or wash their clothes.
“We secretly arrived in Deir el-Balah. “We didn’t tell father.”
The children’s aunt, Eman Shehada, took care of them as best she could. Very pregnantShe said that she had lost her husband in the war and was left alone with her daughter, a little girl.
Photo: Reuters
“I don’t get the nutrition I need, so I feel tired and dizzy,” she explains.
He can’t even afford to buy a kilo of potatoes.
“I don’t know how to settle our affairs with these three children, my daughter, and I’m pregnant, I can give birth at any moment.”
The war was sparked by an attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel on October 7, which, according to Israeli data, killed 1200 people and took 253 hostages.
Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, responded with air and ground attacks on the densely populated coastal area, killing more than 29,700 peopleAccording to health authorities in Gaza, an enclave ruled by Hamas.
The war displaced most of 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza and caused widespread starvation and disease.
Reuters
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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