Breaking News
light_mode
Trending Tags
Beranda » Internasional » Hunger, thirst and chaos in southern Gaza as hostilities drive humanitarian aid to the brink of collapse

Hunger, thirst and chaos in southern Gaza as hostilities drive humanitarian aid to the brink of collapse

  • account_circle Ismaya Rosita
  • calendar_month Kam, 8 Feb 2024
  • visibility 368

Twelve-year-old Do’a Atef spends her days knocking on doors begging for food, or gathering firewood from a dusty hill near a refugee camp outside Rafah, in southern Gaza, to cook the few tomatoes and peppers given to her by strangers.

Do’a told NBC News that she was displaced from her home in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, along with her parents and seven siblings, and they are now sleeping in tents. They are so thirsty, “we drink dirty water,” she said. “My siblings are crying all day.”

They couldn’t find flour, they were cold, there was no bathroom for them to use, no diapers for her baby brother, and no milk to give him. Two months ago, Do’a said, she used to read in school and play with her friends. “Now, all we do is bring firewood and walk barefoot.”

Do’a’s situation underscores a bleak reality for many in Gaza, as the Israeli military’s ground invasion and aerial bombardment continues, displacing an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians into shrinking “humanitarian zones,” mostly in southern Gaza. A dire food and water shortage is putting many at risk of infection and death, according to humanitarian aid groups that stressed difficulties in delivering aid due to the intensity of hostilities.

Israel continued to intensify its offensive in southern Gaza into Sunday.

Aid entering Gaza is a fraction of what is needed. Agencies described children and families roaming the streets, unable to find food and with nowhere to go. Lines for clean water can last hours, and some have turned to collecting rainwater.

“The scarcity of aid has led to desperate struggles over water tearing at our social fabric,” Bushra Khalidi, policy lead for Oxfam, said. “The situation in Gaza is not just a catastrophe, it’s apocalyptic.”

Aid agencies described children and families roaming the streets, unable to find food and with nowhere to go. Lines for clean water can last hours, and some have turned to collecting rainwater, which in this semi-arid land is scarce, too. Supermarket shelves are empty. People arrive at bakeries before dawn, with no guarantee they’ll end up with a sack of bread before the shop runs out.

The price for a 25-kilogram (55-pound) sack of flour has skyrocketed to as high as $100 — up from about $15 before the war.

“Numbers that are really, really beyond any capacity,” Najla Shawa, a Palestinian humanitarian aid worker who recently left Gaza, said of the soaring wartime prices. Other commodities and essentials, down to the containers Gazans use to collect water, she said, have also become perilously expensive.

“Even if you have the money,” Shawa said, “the trip to get it is very dangerous and it’s really difficult and humiliating.”

Shawa said the people she has spoken to in Gaza are rationing water. “They are really trying to consume very little,” she said. “A cup a day. A couple of cups a day for the adults, giving priority to children.”

Hazem Zarifa, a 24-year-old university student sheltering in the southern city of Khan Younis, said he has walked miles searching for a little bread or some canned food.

“I have so far lost more than 10 kilograms of weight” — about 20 pounds — Zarifa said. He felt sick from hunger.

Palestinians line up for food donations in Rafah on Nov. 30. Conditions have worsened since. The U.N. secretary-general warned Thursday that the humanitarian support system in Gaza was at high risk of collapse: “We anticipate it will result in a complete breakdown of public order.

Palestinians line up for food donations in Rafah on Nov. 30. Conditions have worsened since. The U.N. secretary-general warned Thursday that the humanitarian support system in Gaza was at high risk of collapse: “We anticipate it will result in a complete breakdown of public order.”

Mohammed Abed

Representatives for several international humanitarian groups are struggling to describe the new lows after having spent much of the past two months of war ringing alarm bells about conditions on the ground in Gaza.

“Those who survived the bombardment now face imminent risk of dying of starvation and disease,” Alexandra Saieh of Save the Children said during a press briefing on Thursday.

“The lack of water and hygiene is aggravating the diseases: diarrhea, vomiting, skin allergy, lice in the children’s hair,” said Chiara Saccardi, regional head of Action Against Hunger.

During last month’s temporary pause in fighting, the World Food Programme conducted a rapid food assessment, which it released on Wednesday, concluding that the situation in Gaza was “alarming.”

In a statement issued after a visit to Gaza on Friday, WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau said, “Gazans are simply not eating.”

He described “confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves, and overcrowded shelters with bursting bathrooms. The dull thud of bombs was the soundtrack for our day.”

Eighty-three percent of households in southern Gaza have inadequate food consumption, according to the report, with 38% suffering from “severe levels of hunger.”

In a press call with international journalists on Thursday, Oxfam’s Khalidi and others described the conditions in Gaza as “not survivable.”

“Oxfam categorically views these actions, including the use of starvation as a war weapon, massive civilian killings and collective punishment, as war crimes,” she said, referring to the Israeli-imposed siege that has cut off food, water, electricity and fuel since the war began.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the humanitarian support system in Gaza was at high risk of collapse: “We anticipate it will result in a complete breakdown of public order.”

In response, the Israeli military office that works in conjunction with the Palestinian territories said they are abiding by international law as they conduct their operations in Gaza. As it has done for weeks, Israel has blamed the humanitarian aid crisis on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the refugee wing dedicated to Palestinians. UNRWA has previously pushed back on that allegation.

  • Penulis: Ismaya Rosita

Komentar (0)

Saat ini belum ada komentar

Silahkan tulis komentar Anda

Email Anda tidak akan dipublikasikan. Kolom yang bertanda bintang (*) wajib diisi

Rekomendasi Untuk Anda

  • Unlikely Origins: The Humble Beginnings of Today’s Tech Titans

    Unlikely Origins: The Humble Beginnings of Today’s Tech Titans

    • calendar_month Ming, 25 Feb 2024
    • 0Komentar

    Exploring the Tech-Savvy WondersThe delineation between digital and physical continues to blur, weaving a fabric of reality that resonates with the beats of progress. Within this exciting nexus, entrepreneurs and tech aficionados find a fertile ground to cultivate, explore, and thrive. As we navigate through the myriad of gadget-driven narratives, there are key trends and […]

  • Satgas Si Ipar Wujudkan Harapan Anak Tidak Sekolah di Distrik Dekai

    Satgas Si Ipar Wujudkan Harapan Anak Tidak Sekolah di Distrik Dekai

    • calendar_month Rab, 2 Jul 2025
    • 0Komentar

    Papua – Melalui Program Si Ipar yang rutin dilakukan Rasaka Cartenz-2025, personel secara terjadwal memberikan pelajaran kepada anak-anak di Jalan Sosial Distrik Dekai Kabupaten Yahukimo, Selasa (1/7/25). Kali ini, para anggota Satgas Si-Ipar memberikan pelajaran berhitung dasar kepada anak-anak usia sekolah dasar dalam suasana yang santai dan menyenangkan. Anak-anak yang tidak bersekolah tersebut, sangat bersemangat […]

  • Kawendra: Pensiunan PT Pos dan Jiwasraya Adalah Aset Moral, Bukan Beban Negara

    Kawendra: Pensiunan PT Pos dan Jiwasraya Adalah Aset Moral, Bukan Beban Negara

    • calendar_month Sen, 30 Jun 2025
    • 0Komentar

    Jakarta – Anggota Komisi VI DPR RI dari Fraksi Gerindra, Kawendra Lukistian, menegaskan pentingnya memperjuangkan kejelasan hak-hak para pensiunan. Hal tersebut ia sampaikan dalam Rapat Dengar Pendapat Umum (RDPU) yang digelar pada Senin (30/6/2025), bersama perwakilan pensiunan dari Persatuan Pos Indonesia, Perkumpulan Pensiunan Jiwasraya, dan Paguyuban Pensiunan PT Pertani. Dalam rapat tersebut, Kawendra menekankan bahwa […]

  • Polda Papua Barat Musnahkan 1.600 Butir Amunisi dan Laras Panjang Senjata Api

    Polda Papua Barat Musnahkan 1.600 Butir Amunisi dan Laras Panjang Senjata Api

    • calendar_month Ming, 6 Jul 2025
    • 0Komentar

    Papua Barat – Direktorat Reserse Kriminal Umum (Ditreskrimum) Polda Papua Barat melaksanakan pemusnahan barang bukti berupa 1.600 butir amunisi tajam dari berbagai kaliber serta satu laras panjang senjata api. Kegiatan ini berlangsung di Lapangan Tembak Markas Komando Satuan Brimob Polda Papua Barat, Minggu (6/7/25), pukul 14.00 WIT hingga selesai. Pemusnahan dilakukan berdasarkan Laporan Polisi Nomor: […]

  • Satgas Si-Ipar Ops Rasaka Cartenz 2025 Gelar Kegiatan Pembelajaran untuk Mama-Mama dan Anak-Anak di Kampung Doyo Baru

    Satgas Si-Ipar Ops Rasaka Cartenz 2025 Gelar Kegiatan Pembelajaran untuk Mama-Mama dan Anak-Anak di Kampung Doyo Baru

    • calendar_month Kam, 3 Jul 2025
    • 0Komentar

    Papua – Satgas Si-Ipar Operasi Rasaka Cartenz 2025 Subsatgas Polres Jayapura menggelar kegiatan pembelajaran bagi mama-mama dan anak-anak warga Kompleks Bahtera Hebron, Kampung Doyo Baru, Distrik Waibu, Kabupaten Jayapura, Rabu sore (2/7). Kegiatan yang ini dipimpin langsung oleh Kasubsatgas Si-Ipar AKP Yonias Purwanto, didampingi oleh personel Satgas Si-Ipar dan Banops Polres Jayapura. Mereka disambut hangat […]

  • Inovatif dan Humanis, Polres Tolikara Gandeng Komunitas Ojek dalam Patroli Siaga Pasca HUT Bhayangkara ke-79

    Inovatif dan Humanis, Polres Tolikara Gandeng Komunitas Ojek dalam Patroli Siaga Pasca HUT Bhayangkara ke-79

    • calendar_month Sab, 5 Jul 2025
    • 0Komentar

    Papua – Ada yang berbeda dalam pelaksanaan Patroli Siaga Polres Tolikara pasca peringatan Hari Bhayangkara ke-79. Pada Jumat (04/07/2025), jajaran Regu I Patroli Siaga tidak hanya melaksanakan patroli rutin di wilayah hukum Karubaga, tetapi juga menggandeng komunitas ojek lokal sebagai mitra dalam menciptakan situasi kamtibmas yang kondusif. Dipimpin langsung oleh Kasat Samapta Polres Tolikara Iptu […]

expand_less