While the Muslims of Gaza are preparing to score Eid this weekend and the end of the sacred month of Ramadan, families say that they barely join both ends, without food entering the territory for almost a month.
Rania Hegazy, 38, who is currently in a tent in Gaza City with her husband and three children, was ordered from the Israeli army to evacuate Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza last week.
“We live on canned foods. There is no clean water or appropriate hygiene,” said Hegazy, independent CBC News, Mohamed El Saife on Thursday.
“The last Ramadan was bad, but it is even worse.”
Almost a month after Israel has imposed a complete blockade on all aids and goods entering Gaza, humanitarian organizations say that their food supplies decrease while the prices of food foodstuffs. Hegazy said that finding food to feed your family becomes more and more difficult every day, especially during Ramadan – a sacred month when millions of Muslims from all over the world throw dawn at sunset like a form of worship.
“It’s been over a year and a half to be forced to go from one place to another. My children have suffered a lot,” she said.
The EID – which literally translates into the celebration of the rapid rupture in Arabic and marks the end of Ramadan – should arrive on Sunday. Hegazy says she has trouble knowing what to tell her children – who are between four and six years old – when they ask for clothes or toys.
“Eid?” There is no EID.
“My daughter asks me for a new outfit for Eid … Something simple, a blouse or a dress, but I can’t get it for her,” she said, wiping tears.
Last year, the family discussed in the north of Gaza where a large part of the population was ordered to flee to the south due to the heavy Israeli bombardment.
Hegazy says they break their fast with everything they can find – it’s often rice with a kind of canned food. Thursday, it was rice with beans next to a bowl of Macaroni that another family of their tents camp brought to share with them.
“Today, we have found part of the rice, and thank God, we did,” she said. “During Ramadan last year, we could not find rice to eat – there was a mass starry.”
Food prices soar as supplies decrease
Israel resumed bombing and ground operations in Gaza last week, breaking a two-month ceasefire in the middle of the lines on terms for extension. Two weeks earlier, he reproduced the ban on humanitarian aid by entering Gaza. He indicates that the measures aim to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to seize the territory in Gaza if the militant group refuses to return them.
Hegazi said that before the war, families would generally hold rallies and prepare meals during Ramadan – mainly with meats, salads and soups. She said they would prepare fruit trays and Qatayef – a dessert of the Middle East similar to a small pancake – often stuffed with cheese, cream or nuts, then fried or baked in the oven and soaked with syrup.
But the prices of all foods have climbed on the Gaza strip since the start of the blockade.
Her husband, like many in Gaza, is unemployed, she said, without any means of making money during the war.
“Their father is seated here. There is no work. There is nothing, we are just sitting here forced from one place to another.”
Almost a month after Israel has imposed a complete blockade on the goods entering Gaza, families fast for the sacred month of Ramadan, say that finding food was a fight in the midst of supplies and arrow prices.
“I want a salad and we cannot even buy a cucumber or a tomato. But thanks to God for everything, what matters most is that my family is safe.”
According to the World Food Program (WFP), the price of a bag of 25 kilograms of wheat flour is sold up to $ 71 – an increase of 400% compared to prices before March 18.
Children drawing food in the sand
Last year, the Palestinian Muslims of Gaza were in a similar situation – under the Israeli bombardment in progress and scraping enough food for Iftar during Ramadan, because the supplies in the besieged enclave operated dangerously.
Since the Israeli air strikes resumed last week, at least 855 Palestinians were killed and 1,869 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. More than half of the people killed were women and children, according to the ministry.
Abubaker Abed, an independent Palestinian journalist, said that Gaza’s children are so hungry that they drew images of food in the sand.
“My friend told me today that he was continuing to watch food videos because he wants to have a plate of meat or fish,” wrote Abed in a job On X Tuesday.
Thousands of armed men led by Hamas attacked the Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, according to Israeli accounts, and removing 251 hostages in Gaza. Fifty-nine hostages are always detained there, with 24 of them who would be alive.
The Israeli campaign in response killed more than 49,000 people, according to the Palestinian health authorities, with thousands of others who are still under the rubble.
Gazans again at risk of serious hunger, malnutrition
Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza again risk serious hunger and malnutrition as stocks of humanitarian products in the Enclave Didle, without any assistance on borders, WFP said on Thursday in a press release.
The United Nations agency said there were about 5,700 tonnes of food stock in Gaza, enough to support its operations for a maximum of two weeks.
“With the deterioration of the safety situation, the rapid displacement of people and growing needs, WFP has decided to distribute as much food as possible, as quickly as possible in Gaza,” WFP said.
The agency said it currently supported bakeries manufacturing bread, kitchens cooking hot meals and the distribution of food parcels directly with families, which are all faced with a “low” stock inside Gaza.
Mansoura Marouf, housing in the same tents camp in Gaza City with her husband, said that they were counting on neighbors who share food with other families.
At the start of the war, the 52 -year -old woman lost her two sons who have left seven orphaned children behind them.
“It is the second Ramadan that we break quickly in the streets, our backs are broken,” said Marouf, who is also from Beit Lahiya and was ordered to evacuate last week.
“My children died and we were left rushing for a shelter. This Ramadan is just dark. This EID is dark.”
