2023-11-30 14:35:25
“Where are all the Arabs and Muslims in the world? Where are all the human rights defenders? They have let the Palestinian people suffer, starve and be destroyed.”
A middle-aged woman rants against the world in a line to buy cooking gas in Gaza.
She screams angrily at the sky, desperation and frustration visible on her face and desolation lurking in the background.
“We have been waiting in line to fill a gas cylinder since early this morning. I have performed my morning prayers standing up.”
She tells me that she is displaced from Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, just 2 km from the border with Israel.
“I can’t describe the destruction. Entire families have been erased from civil records. They were killed under their houses,” he tells me.
“Gaza has been completely destroyed. Have mercy on us.”
He now lives with his family in a UN school in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.
BBC Hundreds of people queue for cooking gas in the city of Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.
After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, a raid that killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostage, the Israeli military began airstrikes and then launched a ground invasion into Gaza.
At least 14,800 Palestinians have died to date, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
The Gaza Strip has 2.4 million inhabitants and, according to the UN, since Israel ordered the population to move to the south of the territory, 1.8 million people have been displaced.
There are hundreds of people lining up to get gas. Several young people wait sitting on top of the cylinders. The atmosphere is tense. People are exhausted.
BBC A young man sits on a cooking gas cylinder in Deir al-Balah.
Since the ceasefire on November 24, up to 200 trucks of humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip a day, approximately half of those entering before the war.
UN agencies say they have been able to deliver some aid in the north, where the Israeli army is based, but there are huge shortages everywhere.
Another man in line agrees to talk to me.
“There is not even a cup of tea or a packet of biscuits to be found. Yesterday people shared bread while sleeping on the street. People spent the night here, in the rain and cold. May God help us.”
Israel halted all fuel deliveries at the start of the conflict and later allowed in a limited amount, currently 140,000 liters every two days, according to a US State Department official.
The Israeli government claims that the extra fuel could be used by Hamas, an organization designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, among other powers.
Mohammed al-Qidrah waits patiently in the gas line.
“We have been here for three days. We came two nights ago and from 3 in the morning until now we have not been able to refuel. We didn’t find fuel, flour or anything. It is very difficult to find things and, when you do, you have to wait in line for everything.”
No toilets or medical treatment
The shortage of fuel and supplies is not the only threat they face in the Strip.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that if the health system is not restored, untreated diseases could kill more people than bombings.
The warning came just as the truce between Israel and Hamas entered its fifth day, after a 48-hour extension was agreed.
Diarrhea and respiratory infections are widespread among children in UN shelters, where there are currently around 1.3 million people.
Overcrowding, lack of food, water, sanitation, basic hygiene and waste management are increasing the number of diseases, highlighted the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
He said there are thousands of cases of scabies (scabies), chickenpox and jaundice, and that almost 40,000 children under 5 years of age have diarrhea.
BBC People are angry and scared because they are forced to queue for up to three days to get cooking oil.
“We need a sustained ceasefire. Now. “It is a matter of life or death for civilians,” she said.
Lack of treatment for diarrhea, especially in babies, can deteriorate their health and cause them to die quickly, said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris.
The current conditions in the shelters are not helping either.
“On average, there is one shower for every 700 people and only one toilet for every 150 people,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said last week.
Patients with chronic diseases such as cancer are also not receiving treatment.
According to the UN, only five hospitals are partially operational in northern Gaza, the area that has been the focus of the Israeli ground offensive.
Eight of the 11 hospitals are operating in the south, where the Israeli army ordered civilians to flee. Only one of those hospitals has the capacity to treat critical trauma cases or perform complex surgeries.
In this context, Unicef spokesperson, James Elder, saw how children with serious war wounds remained for hours lying on the floor of hospitals without being able to be treated.
Reuters Palestinians try to save what remains of their olive harvest during the ceasefire in southern Gaza.
A little return to life
Displaced children and their families are also suffering due to the lack of adequate shelter and clothing to protect them from the rainy and cold weather currently affecting Gaza.
During the first four days of the truce, 800 aid trucks entered Gaza and some reached the north, according to US officials. This is an increase compared to previous days, but it is still only a fraction of usual.
UN agencies say that under such conditions the resumption of fighting should be unthinkable and are again calling for a permanent ceasefire.
Amid this panorama, while the ceasefire holds, there are signs that some life is returning to the region, where what remains of this year’s olive oil harvest is being harvested.
Reuters There is a fuel shortage, but the Palestinians are managing to process part of their olive harvest.
“We have to take advantage of this opportunity, there is no time,” Palestinian farmer Fathy Abu Salah tells Reuters news agency. He lives in Khan Younis, in the south.
“This war has destroyed us, there is hardly any production. Most of the harvest was lost,” he adds.
The lack of electricity has caused a dependence on fuel to run the machinery in the oil mill, where the olives are ground.
“Finding fuel is a crisis that everyone faces,” says Mohamed Wafy, olive grower and oil mill worker.
“As soon as we have some fuel, we can open the oil mill, even if it works at minimum capacity,” he says.
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