Hunger and despair in the ruins of Gaza City

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In the streets of Gaza City this week, there were two sounds that never stopped day and night. In the West, Mediterranean breakers crashed on the exhausted coast. To the east, the shells, the missiles and the rockets exploded with dull noise and occasional cracks.

At least 100,000 people came to Gaza City, once the commercial and cultural hub lively in the Palestinian territory. All flee the new offensive – nicknamed Gideon's Chariots – recently launched by Israel in the cities and ruined districts in the north of Gaza.

The explosions that newly displaced people can hear, while they hurry in makeshift shelters and camps constructed in a hurry, or simply install their tents or tarpaulins on the sidewalks marked by pockets, sometimes come during direct confrontations between Israeli troops and Hamas, although the military Islamist organization remains insane, often underground.

Much more often, it was the sounds of air strikes and artillery bombings that killed around 750 people and injured 2000 others in Gaza last week, mainly women and children, according to medical officials.

On Wednesday, Mohammed Abu Nadi moved his family from Jabaliya, a district east of Gaza City which was reduced to ruins in several Israeli offensives and raids.

“What happened this week was another escalation … There were implacable bombings everywhere,” said the 33 -year -old player. “My friend was on the way to bring a vehicle to move his family to Gaza City, but on his return, he found his house reduced in rubble. His wife and children were all killed.

“They were only young children, innocent civilians without any involvement in anything. I was shocked when it happened. I quickly carried my wife and family and left the region towards Gaza City. ”

Abu Adam Abdul Rabbo, 55, said that more than 80 members of his extended family were killed during the 19 -month conflict, which was launched by an attack on Hamas in Israel in which activists killed 1,200, mainly civilians, and removed 251, including 57 in Gaza. The Israeli offensive that followed killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, also mainly civilians, and has reduced a large part of the territory to the rubble; SMASHING ROADS, Health Facilitias, Schools, Religious Sites, Sanitation Systems and many other things. Israeli officials say they only attack military targets and accuse Hamas to use civilians as human shields, an accusation it denies.

A week ago, Rabbo said he was awakened by the sound of a huge explosion that had targeted his brother's house, killing five.

“We had a hard time transferring their bodies to the hospital because a quadcoptre drone drew bullets everywhere. We managed to bury them in the cemetery of the city of Jabaliya. After that, we decided to leave, fearing the lives of our remaining children.

“We were only able to transport a few basic items – clothes and food. My wife was crying bitterly, asking, “How will we survive?” What can we take with us? How long will we stay inappropriate? “Said Rabbo.

This month, food security experts supported by the United Nations said that the territory was at a critical risk of famine, the cases of malnutrition increasing rapidly.

The United Nations warehouses in the territory are empty and most of the free bakeries on which many were counting for their daily bread weeks ago – although the help agencies were able to operate certain community kitchens to produce around 300,000 meals a day. The limited food available for purchase is too expensive for almost everyone, with 1 kg of tomatoes or onions costing the $ 13 equivalent.

“Each corner of each street is crowded with people,” said Amjad Shawa, director of the Gaza NGO network that is based in Gaza City. “They live in discharges, cesspites. There are flies, mosquitoes. We have no water to deliver, no food, no tents or blankets or tarpaulins, nothing. People are very, very hungry but nothing gives them.

On Friday, UN officials said that their clinics and pharmacies were no longer able to offer 40% of the treatments classified as essential by the World Health Organization. Doctors interviewed last week reported having seen numerous cutaneous abscesses and diseases in patients, as well as acute cases of diarrhea and respiratory diseases – in addition to the many injuries of air strikes.

“We see children suffering from malnutrition, but everyone complains of being hungry,” said Dr. Iain Lennon, an emergency British consultant in Mawasi, southern Gaza. “We often see tired or dizzy patients because they just haven't eaten.”

In recent days, Israel has attenuated the tight blocking in Gaza imposed in early March, when the first phase of a fragile cease-fire expired. On Friday, 100 trucks entered the territory, but very little help had been distributed.

Humanitarian officials said a key problem was security. The law and the order improved in the territory during the ceasefire from mid-January to March when the police managed by Hamas was on the street, but it has collapsed since. From a convoy of 20 trucks each carrying 20 tonnes of wheat flour for the world food program, only three arrived at their destination Thursday evening after two were broken down and 15 were diverted by looters and hunted.

“You do not see children's lines with rib cages and thorns manifesting themselves as in Africa,” said a UN official, “but there you have no roads and a population dispersed in an area the size of Europe. Here there is 130,000 tonnes of aid Just the other side of the entry points in Gaza, a few kilometers away. »»

Few people trust that an Israeli program supported by the United States to provide help due to next week will improve the situation. The plan implies a small number of distribution centers in the south of Gaza managed by private entrepreneurs protected by Israeli troops who are investigating. The United Nations humanitarian workers describe the program as dangerous, impractical and perhaps illegal.

To obtain help, the Palestinians will have to travel up to 25 miles (40 km) on garbage roads during an active conflict, despite an almost total lack of available transport, to recover a 20 kg monthly dietary plot.

“It would be very difficult to go, and there is no guarantee that you can come back,” said Shawa. “This is an engineering strategy to move people and start cleaning northern Gaza.”

Israel said the plan was necessary to prevent the seizure and sale of Hamas aid to finance its operations. Friday, assistance officials in Gaza said that there was no proof of generalized embezzlement of aid at a stadium in the conflict.

Meanwhile, vulnerable suffers the most. Six weeks ago, the eldest son of Ihab al-Attar, Beit Lahia, tried to return to the family home to recover food and clothes, but he was targeted by a missile and seriously injured. There was no warning and no evacuation order of the Israeli army, Attar, 41 years old.

A series of operations saved the life of Mahmoud, 21, but left it without many of his intestines and an infected injury. When the new Israeli offensive started 10 days ago, the family was forced more than their battered but habitable house in a tent in a street in Gaza City. With almost all the hospitals in the north of Gaza no longer operating and the few other outdated, the family tried to take care of Mahmoud.

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“Now Mahmoud's state is getting worse day by day,” said Attar. “The most difficult part is to look at my son to die before my eyes and to be unable to do anything for him. I'm afraid of losing my son. “

The Yazan is also in great danger, the quadrapplegic son of Nadi, eight, who said his father, needed a regime and special care.

“He became extremely thin and suffers from a serious malnutrition. I took him to the hospital several times, but the doctors told me that they could do nothing for him.”

Littlely tend a lot of hope for any relief. Negotiations for a new ceasefire have stalled, and help should take days, or even weeks to arrive, in the north of Gaza, if necessary.

Umm Ammar Jundiyea, 65, who is in Gaza City after fled the eastern district of Shujaiya, described a “dark” future.

“The world does not care about what is happening in Gaza, even if we all die,” said the eight -year -old mother. “This world is misleading and hypocritical. He claims to be civilized and human, but he only sees one eye. ”