Israel’s deliberate campaign of starvation in Gaza is exacting a punishing toll on its people. Just 30 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip a day in November, according to Al Jazeera—a far cry what is needed to feed the area’s 2 million people. In North Gaza Governate, where a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing is underway, just 12 of 34 permitted aid trucks have arrived since Oct. 6, according to Oxfam. The Real News reports from Deir al Balah in Gaza’s south, where overburdened and under-provisioned bakeries struggle to feed thousands.
Producer: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
Videographer: Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi
Video Editor: Leo Erhardt
Transcript
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
There’s people who camp overnight at the bakery. I swear—the last time I went, I found they’d laid out beds at the door. There are people who get there at 5am. I swear someone told me they arrived at 3am and left at night. For 19 packs of bread. Some get it and some don’t.
Interviewer:
How many meals are you eating a day?
Um Yusuf Dalloul, Gaza City:
There aren’t any meals! It doesn’t make up a meal, there aren’t any meals at all. There’s nothing. Right now, currently, there are no meals. There’s no food. People started hitting each other. The last time I was here, I got trapped in the middle of a fight.
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
Yes, they’re slaughtering each other. I swear to God, with sticks. They’re beating people with sticks. They hit people, last time they knocked over an old man and he dropped to the floor.
Interviewer:
All this for bread?
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
For bread. And the kid refused to pick him up. We told him: “Be respectful he’s old, help him up,” he said: “No, you help him.” Hitting people with sticks as if they were cattle. Not humans.
Interviewer:
Are there many conflicts?
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
Every day, every day, there are problems at the bakery. Every day. Not a day goes by without problems. A person before the war used to come and go, used to be strong. I swear I used to carry a sack of cement to the fourth floor, and go up and down two or three times. Now, nothing. Even water—from carrying the water so much—we don’t have any strength left.
Um Yusuf Dalloul, Gaza City:
I mean can they find us a solution? So we can just leave. We want to leave. Enough. We are exhausted. Illnesses. I have chronic illnesses and can’t find medications. Can’t find medications and can’t even find bread to eat with my medications. Since morning I’ve been wandering around trying to find bread. We’re suffering.
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
Everyone’s being diagnosed, everyone’s fatigued. If you go to the Jaa hospital, you can’t walk for people suffering from fatigue.
Interviewer:
From what?
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
From lack of food.
Um Yusuf Dalloul, Gaza City:
Yes, many have died of hunger. As someone with a chronic illness, if this continues, I could die. Maybe a week and I’ll die. It’s normal. Because I suffer from a lot of chronic illnesses. I’m suffering even from talking, because I have high blood pressure.
Sa’ada Barakat Rashid Khel:
I went to the clinic to get checked, I told them I get dizzy and my eyes glaze. They said you need blood tests, I told them my blood is definitely bad because I’m not eating. I’ve lost more than half my weight. My son gets bad headaches, and he went to the clinic and they gave him vitamins. And my youngest daughter, they’re always telling me: “Her face is yellow, her face is yellow.” They lack nutrition, vitamins, food, and drink. Even at the clinic, they have no medications.
Interviewer:
Are you hungry now?
Ahmed Hassan Usman Ali Al Arshi:
Yes, honestly, a lot. I mean, before the war I was—I’ve lost a lot of weight. Before the war, my weight was almost 41 kilograms. Now, 38 kilograms—around that. Before the war I used to eat fruits and chicken and vegetables and we had everything. We used to eat, we weren’t hungry. Now there’s nothing. We’ve started to crave chicken. We crave everything, we haven’t found stuff to eat. The soup kitchens, we force ourselves to eat that. There’s nothing to eat. And lentils. Honestly, we used to hate lentils. Now though, we’ve started to love them.
Interviewer:
From lack of food?
Ahmed Hassan Usman Ali Al Arshi:
Yeah.
Sa’ada Barakat Rashid Khel:
Most of the time my kids sleep hungry. Most of the time they sleep hungry. If—if—they manage to get food from the soup kitchen, they eat it. If not, then there is nothing. That’s it, there’s no bread, no flour. My daughter is always saying: “Mum, I want to eat.” What can I do about it? What can I say? If we have lentil soup, I say: “Go drink the soup,” she says: “It doesn’t fill me up!” I say: “Well, what can we do?” Just go to sleep.
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
I fear for my kids, not for myself. That’s what made me leave Gaza City, I’m not scared for myself; I’m scared for those with me. I mean, when it comes to food and drink in general, we can’t afford it. Even when we go to the bakery, we can’t afford a packet of bread. People buy it from the bakery for 3 shekels (0.85 USD), and sell it for 20 ($5), 25 ($7), or 30 shekels ($8). We can’t afford it.
Um Yusuf Dalloul, Gaza City:
That’s it. Greed and selfishness has consumed everyone. There are traders who buy and sell: they buy it for 3 shekels ($0.85) and sell it for 15 ($3.5). A cucumber for 10 shekels ($2.75)?! Prices are sky high. We’re living in Hell. Life is unbearable.
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
A bag of flour has reached 400 ($112) or 500 ($140) shekels. And we can’t get it. I swear there was a day when I sold a bag of flour for 5 shekels ($1.40). In the summer, it wouldn’t keep, it would go bad. Now it’s 500 shekels ($140), we can’t afford it. 500 ($140), 600 ($168), and 700 ($196). Today it reached 800 shekels ($224). Today I asked the price of a bag of flour they told me 800 shekels ($224). Where are we going to get that from? We can’t even get a packet of bread.
Um Yusuf Dalloul, Gaza City:
Enough! If they don’t want us then just kill us. Because we are fed up. Seriously. We’re fed up. We’re here dying, I swear we’re dying. Our health has gone, our wealth has gone.
When will this be solved? The whole world has wars and then they solve them, apart from us? We’re the forgotten. I swear we’re forgotten. Until when?
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
To the world? I say: wake up from your sleep. Come out of your coma. Look at the Palestinian people. Feel compassion for them. That’s what I say. People have run out of patience. People have run out of space. People have forgotten what meat is. When you ask about meat, they’ll say: “What’s that?”
Interviewer:
How long has it been since you ate meat?
Mahmud Zuhair Hussain Abu Zaideh:
From the day they closed the crossing. People are suffocated.
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