Gaza kitchens warn food two months after the Israeli siege

It is difficult to get a hot meal in the Gaza Strip, but lunch for needy families in the south is about to be delivered by Donkey and Cart.

Today’s dish is Koshari – made of lentils, rice, and Zesty tomato sauce – in a group of huge cooking utensils in one of the American East Aid (ANEA), a humanitarian organization based in the United States.

“People depend on our meals, they have no source of income to buy the remainder in the local markets and many foods are not available,” says Sami Mattar, who leads Airira.

“In the past we used to cook rice with meat – with protein. Now, due to the closure, there is no kind of meat, not fresh vegetables.”

Two months ago, Israel closed all crossings to Gaza – prevented all goods, including food, fuel and medicines from entering – and later resumed its military attack, and ended the ceasefire for two months with Hamas. He said that these steps aim to pressure Hamas to launch the hostages that they still bear.

Recently, the United Nations World Foods Program and UNRWA, the Palestinian Refugee Agency, said they used all food aid stocks.

There is an increasing international pressure on Israel to lift the siege, with warnings that collective hunger may be imminent and that civilians who are intentionally starved is a war crime.

“Aid and civil life that saved it should never be a bargaining chip,” the human president of the United Nations, Tom Fletcher, warned on Thursday.

“Withholding aid is bringing civilians. He leaves them without a basic medical support. He collects them from dignity and hope. It inflicts a severe collective punishment. It kills the prohibition of aid.”

Hundreds of thousands of Ghazan depend on a few dozen kitchens for food. The person who runs Era in Khan Yunis feeds about 6000 people a day.

But if Israel does not lift the siege, then the longest was imposed on Gaza, the kitchens – the last life arterial of many – will not be what must be distributed soon. The food was stored during the ceasefire at the beginning of this year, but everything is running out.

“The coming days will be decisive. We expect we have two weeks, perhaps less,” said Mattar, who appears a local BBC journalist about the vast and empty Anira warehouse.

“We are used to receiving more than 100 trucks every week – trucks of food parcels and hygiene groups. Now we have nothing.

“We are struggling to provide food such as rice, lentils, pasta, cooking and salt oil, for our society kitchens. It is very charged to buy 1 kg of wood and we need more than 700 kg per day for cooking.”

Israel accused Hamas of stealing and storing humanitarian aid to provide it to its fighters or selling money. The United Nations and other agencies that deny aid and say they have strict monitoring mechanisms.

“We are working hard to avoid any interference from any parties. We have a strong and powerful distribution.”

“We have a database that includes hundreds of thousands of people, including their names, identity numbers and addresses-camps coordinates. This avoids duality with other NGOs and guarantees transparency.”

Again in the exterior, Marar tested food from steam pots to check its quality. Parces are concluded for distribution. Each of them can serve up to four people.

All workers receive food for their hungry families.

The rest is quickly transferred to the donkey cart through the loud streets to the Malassi, a tent camp crowded for displacement on the coast, where dozens of field observers oversee delivery.

An elderly man walks with crutches comfortably screaming with two curtains from Koshari to feed his seven family. He says, “Praise be to God, this will be enough.”

“Don’t even ask me about the situation,” he continues. “We are only alive because death has not yet taken us. I swear that I have been looking for a loaf of bread since the morning, and I did not find anything.”

“The situation is tragic, and it remains exacerbated”, the mother of a tired appearance is suspended. “Life is humiliating here. We have men who are unable to work. There is no income, all expensive products. We are unable to buy anything.”

“At this time, this is excellent,” she says about the warm meal I just gave. “Since there is no cooking gas, no food. When we want to get a cup of tea, collect the leaves to start the fire.”

It has now been more than a year and a half since the war began in Gaza, which led to Hamas’s Hamas attacks on southern Israel. This attack was killed about 1,200 people and took more than 250 people as a hostage. About 59 years old is still detained, with up to 24 people who think they are alive.

The military campaign of Israel has killed more than 52,400 people in Gaza, most of them women, children and the elderly, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. More than 90 % of the 2.1 million populations have been displaced – as many forced to flee several times.

The United Nations has warned that the current situation “is likely to be the worst” due to the siege, the upcoming attacks and evacuation, which led to the displacement of about 500,000 people since March 18.

There are increasing international pressure on Israel to lift the siege, with warnings that civilians who are in intentionally starved are a possible war crime. The United Nations says that Israel has a clear commitment to international law as a job regulation to allow and facilitate aid in Ghazan.

Last Friday, US President Donald Trump said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we must be good in Gaza” and pushed him to allow more food and medicine in the tape.

There was no official response to this, but earlier this week, the Israeli Foreign Ministry rejected criticism from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, which described the siege as “unbearable” in a joint statement and insisted on “this must end.”

The ministry said that more than 25,000 trucks carry about 450,000 tons of goods entered Gaza during the ceasefire. He added: “Israel is watching the situation on the ground, and there is no shortage of aid.”

Israeli officials have indicated that they are planning to reform the aid distribution system.

At the present time, the supplies accumulate at the Gaza border crossings pending their bringing, while inside the region, relief workers have carefully paid their stocks.

In the Mawasi camp, children gather comically around Sami Mattar and Anira’s workers who offer the last food parcels a day.

Many painfully high, with new warnings of acute malnutrition in Gaza – especially among young people.

“I don’t know what will happen if our supplies end,” says Mr. Mattar, who is heavily responsible for his work.

“The feeling of having to stop this vital help for people will be very stressful and frustrated for me and my employees.”

“We have an urgent call,” he continues. “Look at us, see our despair, we understand that time is running out. Please just need to open the crossings again.”