Follow this family in Gaza while they are pursuing the dream of food
It is so disastrous the search for food in Gaza, that a father says that his greatest dream is to see his son with a piece of bread.
From the inside of the tent, he shares with his wife and his five children west of Gaza City, Mohammad Abu Amsha describes what it takes to continue this dream, and the deepening of despair of staying alive while the war is raging.
“The difficult word is not enough,” said Mohammad, 39. “We are experiencing a disaster.”
If they eat at all, it’s a good day, but it is not guaranteed after months of an Israeli imposed blockade and almost two years of war. Securing a single meal to feed your family is often a dangerous test that extends from morning to sunset.
And it starts with the collection of pieces of fabric for sale.
The search for “ribbons”
In Gaza, where fuel shortages abound, there is a request for pieces of materials in tatters because they are effective fire starters when they are soaked in diesel.
That day, the task of finding the fabric falls on three of his children – Rahaf, 13, Ahmed, 11, and Fawzi, 10.
Their parents send them with a blessing: “God is merciful, whom they soon come back.”
When children do not come back after more than an hour, Mohammad becomes extremely worried about them.
He worries every time they go out in the streets. “I fear that they will not get lost,” he said. “I worry about them when there is a strike.”
But finally, they come back with bags on their backs, loaded with what looks like carpets, nylon, shirts, an old hat.
Ahmed, 11, said: “I was hungry while I was walking.”
Sell remains for a meal
Now it’s up to Mohammad to find a buyer for the remains. It is only then that the family can start looking for food.
Some days, they come empty, even after eight to 12 hours of testing.
Today, they are lucky.
Mohammad finds a buyer and they manage to bring together 20 shekels – about $ 8 CDN – Enough for pasta and lenses. He explains that he would need double to buy bread or flour.
“We separate between seven people,” said Mohammad. “Everyone gets two spoonfuls.”
It is the daily battle for the Abu Amsha family and tens of thousands like them in Gaza, where the last alarm is the most noisy to date.
Famine alert
On July 29, the integrated classification of the food security phase (IPC), which monitored hunger in the world, published a famine alert for the enclave.
The IPC says that they have issued the alert to attract urgent attention to Gaza’s deterioration conditions, and that more analyzes will be carried out to determine if there will be an official famine declaration.
While international pressure rises on Israel, the American special envoy in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the hunger crisis in Gaza.
According to Their reportMore than 20,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, and hospitals have reported a rapid increase in hunger deaths in children under the age of five, with at least 16 deaths since July.
Ciaran Donelly, the main vice-president of the International Living Committee, who had workers on the ground on the ground in Gaza since the start of the war, said that the alert should serve as alarm.
“The thing about famine and these critical food insecurity and nutrition crises is … once in progress, they are incredibly difficult to stop,” said Donelly.
“We will see dozens of people turn into hundreds of people, turning into thousands of people losing their lives without urgent, immediate and large -scale action.”
‘We are going to have bread’
For the Abu Amsha family, this action cannot come quickly enough.
“I prefer to die that I live in life,” said the mother of the family, Enas.
However, she tries to keep hope alive for her children.
“I say,” God wants, be patient, be a little patient, eat crumbs, we will get bread, we will give you spaghetti and flour. “”
For the moment, it’s just a simple bowl of lenses mixed with pasta and water, prepared on a small fire.
Apart from their tent, the family sits on the ground to share the meal poured into a single silver dish.
Today they eat. Tomorrow they can’t.
Enas asks Husam, seven years old, what he wants.
“Bread,” he said.
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