Gaza war - Palestinians in the Gaza Strip: Children go to sleep hungry
Residents of the Gaza Strip have reported deprivation in the face of the UN's warning that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing starvation. A desperate father told the German Press Agency on Saturday that the contents of the food parcels from the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were getting smaller by the day.
Saher Ramlawi, who says he comes from Shejaiya, a district of the city of Gaza in the north of the coastal region, fled to Rafah in the south with his wife and their five children because of the war. They are living there in a makeshift tent.
The family only eats one meal a day, said Ramlawi. "This includes a few pieces of bread and canned food such as beans and some beef." He has lost twelve kilograms since the outbreak of the war, said the father of the family. He and his family have no access to clean drinking water, which is very expensive. He therefore either drinks donated water or sometimes the salty and unhealthy groundwater.
Mother: My children only eat once a day
A woman living in a tent in Deir al-Balah told dpa that her children had already fallen ill due to the lack of food and water. "To get something to eat, I wait in a long line at the UNRWA school," said Hajam Abu Samra. There she receives canned food, cookies and some water. "But they don't give you wheat flour to bake bread." Food prices have risen dramatically since the war. "I have no money to buy food or water," she said. Even the children only eat once a day as a result. "Most of the time they sleep hungry."
UNRWA is the abbreviation for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
In the wake of the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation in the sealed-off coastal strip is becoming increasingly catastrophic. The United Nations recently warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians could die of starvation. A study conducted by several UN agencies and other institutions on Thursday concluded that 577,000 people in the sealed-off coastal strip fall into the most serious category of starvation. Almost all inhabitants are affected by hunger or displacement.
Although more trucks with relief supplies are now arriving in the Gaza Strip again, aid organizations say they are unable to distribute the goods everywhere due to the ongoing fighting.
Read also:
- Year of climate records: extreme is the new normal
- Precautionary arrests show Islamist terror threat
- UN vote urges Israel to ceasefire
- SPD rules out budget resolution before the end of the year
Source: www.stern.de
