in the Gaza Strip, the daily fight of residents against hunger

The UN called on the Israeli government once again on Thursday to do more to address the threat of famine in the Gaza Strip.

NGOs have been warning about the humanitarian situation in Gaza for several weeks. Human Rights Watch, for example, denounces the use of famine as a weapon of war by the Israeli government, and points out that children have died from complications linked to this situation.

David Satterfield, the US government’s humanitarian envoy to Gaza, told a forum on Thursday (April 11) that “the majority, if not all” of the 2.2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are facing famine.

Among them, Ahmad, 12 years old. He lives in the north of the enclave, and every day it’s the same ritual: going out to the markets, in the streets, asking the neighbors… And waiting, near the beach, for the next drop of food aid: “I’m trying to get a meal for my brothers who are younger. They keep telling me they’re hungryexplains Ahmad. But once again I come back with nothing. Why they don’t provide aid directly to families in need ? How a woman who lost her husband will manage to bring food to her children ?”

For two months, several countries have regularly dropped food packages over the northern Gaza Strip. On the ground, the youngest risk their lives to get them back first.

“Here we live in a terrible situation, there is nothing. And during distributions, you can die by being shot by the enemy, or be trampled by the crowd.”

A young resident of Gaza

at franceinfo

Those who are unable to collect food parcels often make do with wild herbs that they pick from the wild, which is obviously far from enough. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, as of April 1, 32 people, including 28 children, had died of malnutrition and dehydration in hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip.