By Dr Marwan Asmar
Voices from Gaza speak about their hunger and ask why has the world turned their backs on them?
Gaza continues to starve. The north of Gaza is experiencing the worst famine thanks to the Israeli blockade and the fact the Biden administration is turning a blind eye and continues to fund the deadly war on Gaza.
The Strip is being attacked from the air, sea and on the ground. The Israeli government is determined to starve the Palestinian population into submission – more like death – in pursuit of Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance fighters.
Meanwhile the world looks on! But since it is the Americans who are mainly funding the war, it should be the White House that should tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant enough is enough!
The social media has been inundated with news of the ongoing starvation campaign of Gaza with many tags on the X platform including #Gaza, #GazaGenocide, #Gaza Genocide, #gazahunger, #SaveGazaFrom Hunger, #Palestine, #FreePalestineFromIsraelNOW.
There is much videos about people starving and dying because of the incessant hunger. These include those posted by Palestinians in the north of Gaza.
‘I haven’t eaten in a week’
“….do you know it has been a week since I last eaten…a whole week without eating anything,” a young man bellows in the videoclip.
“…the price of a bag of flour costs $500 but it’s not available…I’ve been eating hay and barley,” but there is nothing left anymore with his eyes watering.
“…there are no human rights, no women rights, no children rights, no religious rights and no Arab countries have been allowed to send supplies into the Gaza Strip, especially into Gaza City,” he says with a sense of horror.
“…here people have stayed weeks at a time without eating. Can you imagine your mother or your brother without food. This city is under total siege.
If you the occupier [Israel] have a problem with the [Palestinian] resistance, what does that have to do with us, why are you doing this to us. Presently, there is no food and drinks in Gaza City, there are no rights here…”
‘We are eating animal feed but that has run out’
“For the people who don’t know, we, in north Gaza, have been in the last five months without rice, without flour, without vegetables, without any foodstuffs” a young woman says in another videoclip.
“No supplies have been able to reach here, even in the markets there is nothing, we reverted to eating fodder, bird seeds and cat food…
But despite this we said its ok, at least there is something we can eat to block our hunger, despite the fact its taste is bad, and gives us a bellyache. There was simply alternative despite the fact it was animal feed.
I remember what our parents used to say that nobody sleeps hungry, nobody starves to death in his country. But today, every night we sleep hungry. I never thought one day we will go hungry or sleep on an empty stomach.
What have we done to deserve this, what have the children done to deserve this. If we are not killed by the strikes, we will be starved to death.”
‘I have five children to feed’