In the north of the Gaza Strip where Palestinians have been hit hardest by hunger, residents say acute shortages of vegetables, fruit and meat means they are surviving on bread alone.
Food that can be found in the market is being sold at exorbitant prices, they said: a kilo of green peppers, which cost about a dollar before the war, was priced at 320 shekels or nearly $90. Traders demanded $70 for just a kilo of onions.
“We are being starved, the world has forgotten about us,” said Um Mohammed, a mother of six in Gaza City.
She has remained there throughout more than eight months of Israeli bombardments. But she and her family have left their home for designated shelters in UN schools several times.
“Except for the flour, bread, we have nothing else, we don’t have anything to eat it with, so we eat bread only,” she said.
In late May, the Israeli military lifted a ban on the sale of fresh food to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials and international aid workers said.
But in social media posts, Gazans accused unscrupulous merchants of exploiting needs by buying goods at regular prices in Israel and the West Bank and selling them at a huge mark-up.
They said traders are taking advantage of a breakdown of policing in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
“There’s no meat or vegetables and if something is available, it is being sold at unbelievable, fictional prices,” Um Mohammed told Reuters.
The flow of UN aid in the devastated Palestinian territory has been heavily squeezed since the start of Israeli military operations in Rafah in south Gaza, the key gateway into the enclave from Egypt. Israel is coming under mounting global pressure to ease the crisis as humanitarian agencies warn of looming famine.
Yesterday, witnesses said planes dropped aid boxes on areas in Al Karara and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said yesterday that 27 children had died of malnutrition in the enclave since the start of the war last October.
“A humanitarian tragedy is hitting northern Gaza and the ghost of famine is looming in the air,” the ministry said.
More than 37,266 Palestinians have been killed and 85,102 have been injured in Israeli military offensive on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Hamas’ armed wing Al Qassam Brigades said yesterday that two Israeli hostages held in Gaza were killed in an Israeli air strike on Rafah a few days ago.
The group, in a video posted on its Telegram channel, did not release the names of those said to have been killed or provide any evidence.
The Israeli government “does not want your hostages to return, except in coffins,” the Al Qassam Brigades statement said.
Israel rescued four hostages held by Hamas in a hostage-freeing operation in central Gaza’s Al Nuseirat on June 8. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said more than 250 Palestinians were killed in the raid.
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