2023-12-23 22:06:00
When Bakr al-Naji realizes that the meals he prepares for a charity in the Gaza Strip are not enough to fill the children’s bellies, his heart sinks with helplessness, more and more each day.
At the southern tip of Gaza, in the town of Rafah, “thousands of people queue” for a little food at a branch of Tkiyeh, the local version of “Restos du coeur”, says Mr. al-Naji, 28 years.
This displaced person from Gaza City cooks voluntarily to help other Palestinians who are experiencing the same difficulties as him.
“The most difficult moment, for me, is when we distribute the meals,” he told AFP.
“I feel a pang in my heart when there is no more food and the children complain and say that they have not eaten enough,” he laments.
So, most volunteers sacrifice their own bowls.
According to the World Food Program (WFP), 92% of Gaza’s population has reached levels of acute food insecurity or higher.
Humanitarian aid is arriving in dribs and drabs in the Palestinian territory, shelled by the Israeli army which intends to “annihilate” Hamas in power after the bloody attack by its commandos on Israeli soil on October 7.
This attack left around 1,140 dead in Israel, according to an AFP count, based on information from local authorities. The Israeli retaliatory offensive left at least 20,258 dead, according to the latest report from the Hamas government.
Over the next six weeks, residents face high risks of famine, according to a report by the UN hunger monitoring system.
In Rafah, we press against a barrier which separates the crowd from large steaming pots. Adults but especially many children wait with their plastic bowl or small saucepan in their hands.
“Lentils and bulgur have disappeared from the markets, like peas and white beans,” notes Khaled Cheikh al-Eid, manager of the refectory, which welcomes around 10,000 people every day.
Its center survives thanks to donations and volunteers and must constantly juggle with the foods available.
“To starve”
“The can of beans went from one (0.25 euros) to six shekels (1.50 euros),” says Bakr al-Naji.
“People were poor before the war, even those who worked barely had enough to feed their children, how can they do it now?” he asks. “I’m afraid people will die of hunger.”
From the morning, Salam Haidar, 36, stands idly in front of the center.
“I’m told it’s too early but I want to be sure I have something,” says the mother of three young children. “My son cries when he sees another child holding a piece of bread. He tried to steal candy from another child, I told him it was very wrong.”
Nour Barbakh, five months pregnant, also waits for long hours before the opening of the meal distribution center in Rafah.
Waiting while standing and in a crowd is torture.
“Sometimes I send my 12-year-old eldest son, but he is brutalized. He comes back crying, empty-handed,” relates Ms. Barbakh, originally from Khan Younès and displaced with eight members of her family to a school in UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
“If it wasn’t for this dining hall, we wouldn’t have anything at all,” she said, holding three tomatoes and two shekels in her hand. “I can’t find any bread.”
“My children have lost a lot of weight, hunger wakes them up at night. I cry when he asks me to eat in the evening,” she adds, saying she is considering the option of returning home to Khan Younes, although in center of fighting between Hamas and Israel.
“It is better to die at home as a martyr than to die of hunger.”
23/12/2023 21:04:20 – Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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