The children who had been displaced to the south of the Gaza Strip wanted to eat chicken, but the mother had to feed her family that day only with a can of peas donated to her by a man who felt sorry for her as he watched her cry saw.
The Israeli military offensive against Hamas left Tahany Nasr, like most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, homeless and in a camp in Rafah with only one thought: how to find enough food and water for everyone. Only one day.
She said her children lost weight and had dizziness because they weren't eating enough.
“I beg to feed my children but I can't find anything. I go to the (Ministry of) Social Affairs, they say I have to go to the mosque. I go to the mosque, they tell me to go there.” “Social affairs,” he said, referring to Gaza's Ministry of Social Affairs, which usually organizes the distribution of basic goods such as flour to needy people.
Hunger has become the most pressing of the myriad problems facing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza. Humanitarian aid trucks can only deliver a small portion of the amount needed and distribution is uneven due to the chaos of war.
Some trucks have been stopped and looted by desperate people looking for food, and large parts of the devastated area are closed as access roads are active battlefields.
Even in Rafah, where there is a border crossing with Egypt through which trucks enter and where the Israeli army has ordered civilians to seek refuge, the lack of food and drinking water is so great that it is causing illness and human casualties comes weight.
“We started seeing people coming in emaciated,” said Samia Abu Salah, a family doctor in Rafah.
She said weight loss and anemia were common and people were so weak and dehydrated that they were more susceptible to chest infections and skin problems. Babies and children are particularly at risk, as their growth may be impaired.
A MEAL OF ONIONS
“My kids just told me they want chicken. Where should I find chicken for her? Where? Do I know? May Allah save us,” Nasr said, crying as he spoke.
“We haven't had anything to eat for two days. How do I cheat on my children? With noodles? With lentil stew? If I could still find that!” she said, adding that she sometimes resorted to oniononly meals.
Nasr went into his tent to get the can of peas that a kind man had given him, even though he had bought it for himself. “That's it. That’s all we have for the whole day,” he said, raising the can, his voice turning angry.
Far from being an extreme case, Nasr's report echoes the stories of many Portal interviews in Rafah and elsewhere. People say they only eat once a day, talk about inadequate meals with inadequate nutrition, water rationing, and children having diarrhea from drinking dirty water.
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