Physical Address
Indirizzo: Via Mario Greco 60, Buttigliera Alta, 10090, Torino, Italy
“We sleep the empty stomach”
Daily fight of the inhabitants of Ghaza
“The fear of new bombings, the fear of losing someone, the fear of having to move again, we have been forced to flee our house and since then, we have not felt safe, and fear is always present”
Civilians in Ghaza face famine and the fact that humanitarian aid is insufficient. An UNRWA employee Manar testifies to the bruised daily newspaper of Ghazaouis often forced to sleep with an empty stomach. According to this employee, travel, hunger and exhaustion are now an integral part of everyday life. “Every day, I wake up without knowing what will happen.” “Our children cry because they are hungry”: it is on this famous sentence that the inhabitants of Ghaza live their forced daily life, drinking water and food are rare. “I’m going to work, but my heart is with my children. Even the simplest things have become terrible, ”she says. In this daily life of despair, even the minimum is a luxury. “Often there is no water to cook or wash. Food is never sufficient ”.
When luck smiles, these desperate families manage to cook rice. But very often, Manar and his loved ones go to bed “empty stomach”. “Our children cry because they are hungry. As a mother, it breaks my heart ”. Manar also describes a desperate research of drugs in a context of shortage due to the Israeli blockade.
More broadly, like Manar, millions of Ghazaouis walk “for hours in heat in search of provisions”. “There are no cars, no bus or help. We are exhausted, physically and emotionally. But we continue. It’s not just a day. It’s our life, ”she concludes.
Because of the hunger of the humanitarian workers vanish
This testimony of Manar occurs two weeks after a similar alert from UNRWA, indicating that he had received “desperate famine messages” from the interior of Gaza, on the part of civilians and even his own staff on the ground. “I looked for something to feed my children, but there is nothing. Every day, SOS messages reach us from hungry populations and even our colleagues from UNRWA. How to respond to such messages of despair? This makes me ashamed and redoubles the feeling of helplessness, “deplored, the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, noting that” the Israeli authorities samples civilians including a million children “.
No one is spared.
“People who take care of children also need care. Doctors, nurses, journalists and humanitarian workers are hungry, “said Lazzarini, noting that” many vanish because of hunger and exhaustion in the exercise of their duties, whether it is to report atrocities or to lighten the suffering “.
Some 2.1 million Palestinians have been besieged in Gaza by Israel since the start of the genocide on October 7, 2023 in Ghaza. UN agencies said last Tuesday that the “worst scenario of famine is underway”. Help aerial drops have also been authorized for more than a week by Israel, which has declared a break in fighting for humanitarian purposes in certain sectors for several hours every day. After Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, France and the United Kingdom indicate that it has carried out parachuting of food and basic necessities. Germany intends to organize with Jordan a “humanitarian air bridge towards Ghaza”.
Blocked help
But for many observers, these operations are expensive. Many agencies and NGOs have pleaded for help conveyed by road rather than the air. UNRWA indicates that “6,000 trucks loaded with aid are blocked outside Ghaza, and await the green light to enter”. On Monday, the head of the United Nations Human Rights, Volker Türk, denounced the “heartbreaking and intolerable” images of people dying in Ghaza. “The fact that we arrive there is an affront to our collective humanity. It reminds us once again that violence must stop once and for all. Saving lives must be everyone’s priority ”.
“Israel continues to severely restrict the entry of humanitarian aid, and authorized aid is far from sufficient. Israel must immediately authorize and facilitate the rapid and unhindered passage of sufficient quantities of humanitarian aid for civilians in need in order to avoid new unnecessary suffering and losses. Refusing civilian access to food can constitute a war crime, even a crime against humanity. “
Some 1,500 people have been killed since May, according to the OCHA, many people are still killed or injured, including people looking for food along the UN convoys and militarized distribution points.
SABEK Samir