As a distracted world looks away, Gaza is being starved
Israel hasn't let in any food, water, fuel or medicine for over a month. Making matters worse, hospitals have been targeted, rendering them unable to cope with the constant influx of sick and injured.
Reuters
Palestinian children suffering from malnutrition receive treatment at a healthcare centre amid widespread hunger in the southern Gaza Strip on March 4, 2024.
As a distracted world looks away, Gaza is being starved
In a world that is distracted by the chaos started by the United States and President Donald Trump’s trade war, attention has turned away from Gaza, where Israel is starving Palestinians in what experts and the International Court of Justice have called a genocide.
All crossings into the Strip have been closed since Israel broke a fragile ceasefire that lasted two months when it began intense bombardment on 18 March. Vital humanitarian aid and relief supplies have been cut off, including fuel and medicine. The ceasefire agreement of mid-January was intended to allow 600 aid trucks and 50 fuel trucks to enter Gaza every day. Although Israel didn't honour the full amount as stipulated under the ceasefire deal, the uptick in aid provided much-needed respite to the war-ravaged population.
Now, things are back to square one—and arguably worse. Gaza's pre-war population stood at around 2.4 million. With over 50,000 people killed (the actual number is believed to be much higher) and thousands more who have managed to leave the Strip, the estimated population is now just over 2 million.
For those who stayed, life has been miserable. It's a daily struggle to survive. As soon as Israel announced it would stop letting in aid, prices rose across the Strip. Those with money stocked up, like central Gaza resident Masoud Salman.
He told Al Majalla he was able to stockpile essential supplies to last about two months: “Prices went up immediately after the crossings closed, so I had to buy what I could. But since there’s no electricity or fridges, I couldn’t stock up on vegetables or meat."
I have no income, and prices keep rising. The value of everything is going up, except for our lives, which seem to be worth less and less.
Gaza resident, Basheer Semaan
Aid-dependent
Approximately 80% of the population relies on daily meals provided by charitable food kitchens run by local agencies and grassroots volunteers alongside international groups. But with Israel blocking aid, these kitchens are running critically low on supplies and have been forced to scale back on the number of meals they provide. Others have shut down entirely.
"The amount of vegetables and rice has dropped day by day. What once left my children and me feeling full became barely enough. Sometimes the children say to me, 'Mum, we're still hungry," Fawzia Abdul Rahman told Al Majalla.
Some displaced Palestinians have managed to grow some vegetables in the displacement camp area of Al-Mawasi west of Khan Younis, but the limited amount mean prices are very high.
"The market has basic vegetables like tomatoes, leafy greens, cucumbers, aubergines and courgettes, but I couldn't afford them. My husband passed away, and I rely on support from charitable individuals and organisations," she said.
A man lights a fire as displaced Palestinians return to the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, in Jabalia, on January 23, 2025, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was reached.
Meanwhile, Israel's restriction of fuel and cooking gas has made life even more difficult. The price of cooking gas has skyrocketed from around $10 per kilogramme on the black market to nearly $70, meaning most people have to use stone-age methods of burning wood, paper and furniture scraps to cook their food.
And a litre of petrol has surged from $15 to between $90 and $100. Petrol is critical, not only for ambulances and cars but also to operate generators because Israel cut electricity to the Strip from the first day of the war 17 months ago.
Kitchens and bakeries depend on fuel to operate generators and cooking gas to cook food, making it even more difficult to feed Gaza's hungry. At least 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) were forced to shut down at the end of March, when both gas and flour supplies were depleted.
A WFP-subsidised bundle of bread had previously cost 2 shekels (around $0.60), while a 25kg sack of flour sold for about $6. After the bakery closures, the price of a single sack rose to over $50.
Even water has become unaffordable. Basheer Semaan from Gaza City said he can no longer afford to buy this most basic commodity, even for drinking. The price of a single cup of water, he said, went from $25 to more than $100.
"How am I supposed to buy water? I have no income, and prices keep rising. The value of everything is going up, except for our lives, which seem to be worth less and less."
Semaan lost his only source of income at the start of the war, and now, he and his family depend on food parcels, meals from charitable kitchens, and occasional cash assistance.
A displaced Palestinian woman prepares bread as children sleep in a tent at a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip.
Decimated healthcare sector
The lack of fuel to operate machinery has made it practically impossible for waste to be managed and processed. With garbage and sewage spilling into streets, disease is spreading fast.
But there is little respite for the sick or injured as Israel has also systematically decimated the healthcare sector, which cannot keep up with the daily influx of wounded and sick people. Gaza's Ministry of Health has warned that the dwindling fuel supply has left hospitals—which depend on generators for electricity to operate life-saving machinery—vulnerable. This also means that ambulances, used to transport casualties from constant Israeli air strikes, could soon cease to operate.
Dr Mohammad Zaqout, director-general of hospitals at the Ministry of Health, told Al Majalla that medical supplies are quickly running out, and many basic items are no longer available. He said that not only has Israel restricted aid from getting in, but that it is also targeting medical aid warehouses—the most recent attack being on the Saudi Centre for Culture and Heritage in Rafah.
According to the Ministry of Health, 37% of medications are now entirely out of stock. Doctors have been forced to draw from reserves intended for surgical theatres, intensive care units, and emergency departments."
Medications for cancer and blood disorder patients are also in critically short supply, with 54% of essential drug types now entirely out of stock. This shortage puts patients' lives at risk, with most no longer able to adhere to their treatment schedule.
For a people who have already endured the unspeakable, Palestinians in Gaza wonder how much more they are expected to suffer before the world pressures Israel to stop this neverending nightmare.
