Aid workers feel helpless as israel’s blockade pushes gaza towards famine

Aid workers feel helpless as israel’s blockade pushes gaza towards famine

Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million is acutely malnourished, and one in five Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, say aid workers; world’s top authority on food crises had warned of famine unless the blockade ends; Israel to allow a ‘basic’ amount of food into Gaza.

Two cases pushed nutritionist Rana Soboh to wits’ end. First, a woman was rushed to a Gaza emergency room after fainting while she breastfed her newborn. She told Ms. Soboh she had not eaten in days.

The next day at another medical facility, Ms. Soboh found a severely malnourished one-year-old boy weighing 5 kg, less than half what’s normal. He had not grown any teeth. He was too weak to cry. The mother was also malnourished.

When the mother asked for food, Ms. Soboh started crying uncontrollably.

A feeling of powerlessness has overwhelmed her. Ms. Soboh said sometimes she gives a little money or a bit of her own food. But now she, too, is struggling.

“This is the worst feeling, wanting to help but knowing you cannot.”

After months of trying to raise alarm, humanitarian workers are overflowing with anger, frustration and horror over Israel’s nearly three-month blockade.

‘A catastrophe’

Aid workers, some with years of experience in emergencies around the world and Palestinians who have worked through this and other wars, say what is happening in Gaza is a catastrophe, among the worst they have ever seen. It’s more painful, they say, because it’s man-made, caused by Israel cutting off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to the territory nearly 11 weeks ago.

The world’s top authority on food crises last week warned of famine unless the blockade ends. Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million is acutely malnourished, and one in five Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, it said.

Israel late on Sunday said it would allow a “basic” amount of food into Gaza, saying it did not want a hunger crisis to jeopardise its new military offensive.

Israel says it imposed the blockade to force Hamas to release hostages, a decision that rights groups call a “starvation tactic” and a violation of international law.

Aid workers are also wrestling with moves by Israel and the U.S. to impose a new aid system, despite their objections. The system would limit distribution to a few locations and put it under armed private contractors — to prevent theft by Hamas, Israel says. Humanitarian workers say it won’t meet Gaza’s needs and violates humanitarian principles. The U.N. denies that significant aid diversion takes place. The workers say they should be allowed to do their jobs. Some 1,70,000 metric tons of aid, including food, sits in trucks a few miles away, just inside Israel.

“The humanitarian community is well-experienced and well-versed in terms of treating malnutrition,” said Rachel Cummings, emergency coordinator for Save the Children in Gaza. But “we need food into Gaza and to stop this, by design, attack on the children across the whole of Gaza.”

Shuts the last lifeline

Community kitchens are the last lifeline for most people, but more than 60% have shut down as supplies run out. Those still working can only produce 2,60,000 meals a day.

At his kitchen in Khan Younis, Nihad Abu Kush and 10 cooks prepare enough meals for about 1,000 people a day. More than 2,000 show up every morning, he said.

There are no lines, just a sea of people terrified of being among the half who will miss out. They push and shove, waving pots for portions from the vats of lentils, beans or peas in tomato sauce.

“I feel so helpless because the numbers grow every day,” Mr. Abu Kush said. “I look at their faces and I am unable to do anything.”

On a recent day, he gave up his own portion after he locked eyes with a child with an empty pot.

Ms. Soboh, a nutritionist with MedGlobal, said her team stretches supplies of malnutrition treatments. Each can of baby formula is divided among several mothers. Therapy food portions are reduced by half. They give supplements only to children up to a year old, no longer up to two. But their fixes get overwhelmed in the rising need.

Staff try to dissuade mothers too weak to breastfeed from giving newborns sugar water, which can cause deadly diarrhoea and infections, Ms. Soboh said. But it’s the mothers’ only alternative. Flour sold in the markets is rotten, full of insects, devoid of nutrition and enormously expensive. Still, if they find the cash, parents take risky trips to get it just to fill their children’s stomachs, she said.

Rationing of water

Aid groups distributing water have reduced daily allowances to five liters a day per person, a third of the minimum in emergency conditions. Families must choose between using water to drink, wash hands or to cook, risking infection.

Mahmoud al-Saqqa, Oxfam’s food security sector coordinator, said parents tell him their kids are dizzy from lack of food. They search through garbage for scraps. “We see the hunger in their eyes,” he said. His group, like most, distributed its last food stocks weeks ago.

One of Ms. Soboh’s colleagues, Fady Abed, said desperate adults in his neighbourhood ask him for the nutty-butter bars used to treat severely malnourished children to slake their own hunger.

“You feel like you let them down” refusing them, Mr. Abed said. He struggles to feed his own family. “Fear of famine,” he said, “is in every home.”