With no aid entering Gaza for 60 days, Palestinians struggle to feed families

For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other item has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel. Aid groups are running out of food to distribute and markets are nearly bare. Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.

In the sprawling tent camp outside the southern city of Khan Younis, Mariam al-Najjar and her mother-in-law emptied four cans of peas and carrots into a pot and boiled it over a wood fire. They added a little bouillon and spices.

That, with a plate of rice, was the sole meal on Friday for the 11 members of their family, including six children.

Among Palestinians, “Fridays are sacred,” a day for large family meals of meat, stuffed vegetables or other rich traditional dishes, al-Najjar said.

“Now we eat peas and rice,” she said. “We never ate canned peas before the war. Only in this war that has destroyed our lives,” she said.

The around 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are now mainly living off canned vegetables, rice, pasta and lentils. Meat, milk, cheese and fruit have disappeared. Bread and eggs are scarce. The few vegetables or other items in the market have skyrocketed in price, unaffordable for most.

Israel imposed the blockade on March 2, then shattered a two-month ceasefire by resuming military operations on March 18.

Doctors warn that the lack of variety, protein and other nutrients in children’s diet will cause long-term damage to their health.

Dr Ayman Abu Teir of Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, said the number of malnutrition cases has “increased in a very substantial way.” Specialised milk for them has run out, he said. The UN said it identified 3,700 children suffering from acute malnutrition in March, up 80 per cent from February.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the remains of 51 Palestinians over the past 24 hours who were killed in Israeli strikes, the local Health Ministry said on Sunday, bringing the Palestinian death toll from the 18-month-old Israel-Hamas war to 52,243.

The daily toll includes bodies retrieved from the rubble after earlier strikes.

Israeli ground forces now control around 50% of the Gazan territory.

World