‘Did you eat today?’: Voices of Gaza speak of starvation and survival

This is not a warning.

Famine has already arrived successful Gaza. It is not a metaphor, nor is it a prediction. It is daily.

It is the kid who wakes up asking for biscuits that nary longer exist. The pupil who studies for exams portion faint from hunger.

It is the parent who cannot explicate to her lad wherefore determination is nary bread.

And it is the soundlessness of the satellite that makes this fearfulness possible.

Children of the famine

Noor, my eldest sister Tasneem’s daughter, is three; she was calved connected May 11, 2021. My sister’s son, Ezz Aldin, was calved connected December 25, 2023 – successful the aboriginal months of the war.

One morning, Tasneem walked into our abstraction carrying them successful her arms. I looked astatine her and asked the question that wouldn’t permission my mind: “Tasneem, bash Noor and Ezz Aldin recognize hunger? Do they cognize we’re successful a famine?”

“Yes,” she said immediately. “Even Ezz, who’s lone known warfare and ruins, understands. He’s ne'er seen existent nutrient successful his life. He doesn’t cognize what ‘options’ are. The lone happening helium ever asks for is bread.”

She imitated his babe voice: “Obz! Obza! Obza!” – his mode of saying “khobza” (a portion of bread).

She had to archer him, “There’s nary flour, darling. Your dada went retired to look for some.”

Ezz Aldin doesn’t cognize astir ceasefires, borders, oregon politics. He doesn’t attraction astir subject operations oregon diplomatic statements.

He conscionable wants 1 tiny portion of bread. And the satellite gives him nothing.

Noor has learned to number and recite the alphabet from her mother. Before the war, she loved chocolate, biscuits. She was the archetypal grandchild successful our family, showered with toys, snacks, and small dresses.

Now, each morning, she wakes up and turns to her parent with wide, excited eyes. “Go bargain maine 15 chocolates and biscuits,” she says.

She says 15 due to the fact that it’s the biggest fig she knows. It sounds similar enough; capable to capable her stomach, capable to bring backmost the satellite she knew. But there’s thing to buy. There’s thing left.

Where is your humanity? Look astatine her. Then archer maine what justness looks like.

[Omar Houssien/Al Jazeera]

Killed aft 5 days of hunger

I watched a video that broke my heart. A antheral mourned implicit the shrouded bodies of 7 of his family. In despair, helium cried, “We’re hungry.”

They had been starving for days, past an Israeli surveillance drone struck their structure adjacent al-Tabin School successful Daraj, bluish Gaza.

“This is the young antheral I was raising,” the antheral successful the video wept.  “Look what became of them,” arsenic helium touched their heads 1 past time.

Some radical inactive don’t understand. This isn’t astir whether we person money. It’s astir the total lack of food. Even if you’re a millionaire successful Gaza close now, you won’t find bread. You won’t find a container of atom oregon a tin of milk. Markets are empty. Shops are destroyed. Malls person been flattened. The shelves are not bare – they are gone.

We utilized to turn our ain food. Gaza erstwhile exported fruits and vegetables; we sent strawberries to Europe. Our prices were the cheapest successful the region.

A kilo (2.2 pounds) of grapes oregon apples? Three shekels ($0.90). A kilo of chickenhearted from Gaza’s farms? Nine shekels ($2.70). Now, we can’t find a azygous egg.

Before: A monolithic watermelon from Khan Younis weighed 21 kilos (46 pounds) and outgo 18 shekels ($5). Today: The aforesaid watermelon would outgo $250 – if you tin find it.

Avocados, erstwhile considered a luxury fruit, were grown by the tonne successful al-Mawasi, Khan Younis and Rafah. They utilized to outgo a dollar a kilo. We had self-sufficiency successful dairy, excessively – cheeses and yoghurts made successful Shujayea by section hands.

Our children were not spoiled – they conscionable had basal rights. Breakfast meant milk. A sandwich with cheese. A boiled egg. Now, everything is chopped off.

And nary substance however I explicate it to the children, they cannot grasp the words “famine” oregon “price hike”. They conscionable cognize their bellies are empty.

Even seafood – erstwhile a staple of Gaza’s fare – has disappeared. Despite strict sportfishing restrictions, we utilized to nonstop food to the West Bank. Now, adjacent our oversea is silent.

And with each owed respect to Turkish coffee, you haven’t tasted java until you’ve tried Mazaj Coffee from Gaza.

It had a spot you could consciousness successful your bones.

This is not a forecast. Famine is now. Most of america are displaced. Unemployed. Mourning.

If we negociate 1 repast a day, we devour it astatine night. It’s not a feast. It’s rice. Pasta. Maybe soup. Canned beans.

Things you support arsenic backup successful your pantries. Here, they are luxury.

Most days, we portion h2o and thing more. When hunger becomes excessively much, we scroll done aged photos, pictures of meals from the past, conscionable to retrieve what beingness erstwhile tasted like.

Starving portion taking exams

As always, our assemblage exams are online, due to the fact that the field is rubble.

We are surviving a genocide. And yet, we are trying to study.

I’m a second-year student.

We conscionable finished our last exams for the archetypal semester. We studied surrounded by hunger, by drones, by changeless fear. This isn’t what radical deliberation assemblage is.

We took exams connected bare stomachs, nether the shriek of warplanes.  We tried to retrieve dates portion forgetting the past clip we tasted bread.

Every day, I speech with my friends – Huda, Mariam, and Esraa – connected WhatsApp. We cheque connected each other, asking the aforesaid questions implicit and over:

“What did you devour today?”

“Can you adjacent concentrate?”

These are our conversations – not astir lectures oregon assignments, but astir hunger, headaches, dizziness, and however we’re inactive standing. One says, “My tummy hurts excessively overmuch to think.” Another says, “I astir collapsed erstwhile I stood up.”

And still, we support going. Our past exam was connected July 15. We held on, not due to the fact that we were strong, but due to the fact that we had nary choice. We didn’t privation to suffer a semester. But adjacent saying that feels truthful tiny compared to the truth.

Studying portion starving chips distant astatine your soul.

One day, during exams, an aerial onslaught deed our neighbours. The detonation shook the walls.

A infinitesimal before, I was reasoning astir however bare I felt. A infinitesimal after, I felt nothing.

I didn’t run.

I stayed astatine my table and kept studying. Not due to the fact that I was OK, but due to the fact that determination is nary different choice.

They starve us, past blasted us

Let maine beryllium clear: The radical of Gaza are being starved connected purpose. We are not unlucky – we are victims of warfare crimes.

Open the crossings. Let assistance enter. Let nutrient enter. Let medicine enter.

Gaza doesn’t request sympathy. We tin rebuild. We tin recover. But first, halt starving us.

Killing, starving, and besieging are not conscionable conditions – they are actions forced upon us. Language reveals those who effort to fell who is responsible.

So we volition support saying: We were killed by the Israeli occupation. We were starved by the Israeli occupation. We were besieged by the Israeli occupation.