Three small siblings sat in front of a box of sweets, eating from it inside a tent in the middle of the Gaza Strip, after fleeing their home in Gaza City, where they found nothing to eat but bitter loaves made of animal feed instead of flour to survive. Serej Shahada (eight years old) and his brothers Ismail (nine years old) and Saad (11 years old) said they secretly escaped with their aunt and ended up in a tent in Deir al-Balah because they could find nothing to eat in Gaza City. Serej said, while eating sweets directly from the box with his brothers, "When we were in Gaza, we didn't eat anything; every other day we would have something." He added, "We were eating bird food, donkey food (animal feed), anything." This referred to the loaves made of grains and seeds meant for animal consumption. He continued, "Day after day, this was our food."
Food shortages have become a problem throughout the Palestinian territory since the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) began on October 7, worsening in northern Gaza, where aid is scarce. Crowds of desperate, hungry residents gathered in front of the few aid trucks that arrived in the north. Relief workers reported seeing people with emaciated bodies and sunken eyes. In central Gaza, the situation is slightly better, but still not easy.
In al-Nuseirat refugee camp north of Deir al-Balah, Warda Matar, who is taking shelter in one of the schools, was giving her two-month-old child a date wrapped in gauze to suck on due to the lack of milk. Warda said, "My son is supposed to get milk as soon as he is born, either natural or formula milk, but I couldn't provide it due to the lack of milk in Gaza." She added, "I turned to dates to keep my baby quiet."
The three siblings in the Deir al-Balah tent said they have lost their mother and another brother, along with several aunts and cousins in the war. The eldest brother, Saad Shahada, said that only their father and grandmother are still alive, and they have almost nothing to eat except loaves made of animal feed. He said, "We used to eat bird food, bitter, bitter; we didn't want to eat it, we had to force ourselves to eat it. Every two days, we'd get a small loaf because we disliked it so much."
He added, "The water was also not good at all; we drank salty water and got sick. There was no water to wash, no clothes to wear; where could we get them? We came here." He mentioned that they came to Deir al-Balah secretly without telling their father.
The siblings are being cared for by their aunt, Iman Shahada, who is in the late stages of her pregnancy, to the best of her ability. She said that she lost her husband in the war and is alone with her young daughter. She added, "Since I am pregnant, I can't nourish myself well; I feel tired and dizzy. I can't even buy a kilogram of potatoes." She said, "I don't know how to manage; I have these three children and my daughter while I am pregnant; I could go into labor at any moment."
The war erupted following an attack led by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7. Israeli statistics indicate that the attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people and the capture of 253 hostages. The authorities in the Gaza health sector state that nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing war in Gaza so far, and almost the entire population has been displaced from their homes. The war has led to the displacement of most of the 2.3 million residents of Gaza and caused hunger and disease to spread.
