A group of global hunger experts warned this week that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of famine, but for many Gazans it feels like it’s already here.
“I swear our stomachs are rotting,” said Eman Abu Jaljum, 23, whose family in northern Gaza survives on canned peas and beans.
In a report released Tuesday, experts said nearly half a million people in the territory were at risk of starvation. They have not declared famine, a designation that depends on meeting various criteria.
But in a Gaza devastated by nearly nine months of war between Israel and Hamas, that may seem like a distinction without a difference.
“We are living in more extreme famine than ever before,” Ms. Abu Jaljum said.
Every day brings a new struggle to find food. Fresh vegetables are rare and meat even rarer. And in food markets that are still functioning, shortages have caused prices to skyrocket, including for basic goods like flour and rice.
The last time Iyad al-Sapti, 30, a father of six living in Gaza City, was able to get a bag of flour was almost two months ago – and it required a queue. “Three hour wait,” he explained. A single pepper, he says, now costs more than $2.
“Who could afford that? ” He asked.
One of his daughters, Mr. al-Sapti said, asked for eggs, but there were none. “I would just tell him, ‘I swear, I wish I could get you some eggs,'” he said.
While warning of a high risk of famine, the report released Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Classification, known as IPC, noted that the amount of food reaching northern Gaza had increased in recent months . The change coincides with the Israeli reopening of border crossings – under intense international pressure – to allow the entry of more aid.
The designation of famine by the IPC depends on a combination of factorsincluding the percentages of households facing extreme lack of food, children suffering from acute malnutrition and deaths due to hunger or malnutrition.
But many people risk dying before all the criteria are met.
Since the IPC standards were developed in 2004, they have only been used to identify two famines: in Somalia in 2011 and in South Sudan in 2017. In Somalia, more than 100,000 people died before the famine occurred. is officially declared.
According to Gaza health authorities, 34 people died of malnutrition on Sunday, most of them children.
“Before, a few simple things were available,” Ms. Abu Jaljum said, “but now there is almost nothing.”
Although the fighting in Gaza is now largely concentrated in the south, food shortages have been reported across the enclave.
In Khan Younis, the southern Gaza town where Nizar Hammad, 30, sheltered with his family in a tent, finding food can be less difficult than cooking it.
“The biggest suffering is the preparation of the food itself, because we don’t have cooking gas,” he said.
Firewood is difficult to find and expensive. But Mr. Hammad said bread, flour, pasta, rice and lentils were available and relatively affordable in his area, and he could buy two bags of flour for about $2.60. Chicken, beef, fruits and vegetables were another matter.
“The problem today is the lack of money, work and income,” Mr. Hammad said.
In the north, bread has become more available as some bakeries in Gaza City reopen, al-Sapti said. Her family mainly eats bread with the za’atar herb mixture. “The reopening of bakeries has helped us a lot,” he said.
But Mr al-Sapti fears that bakeries will soon run out of fuel.
“I really hope they stay open,” he said.
