Categories: World

Inside Gaza: A Heart-Wrenching Journey Through Ruins and Resilience


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Following the intense bombardment of Gaza by Israel, which commenced in October 2023 as retaliation for a lethal Hamas assault, more than 45,000 Palestinians have perished, while over 100,000 have been injured.

The overwhelming majority of Gazans, approximately 90 percent, are displaced within their own territory, compelled to move multiple times to evade airstrikes and combat. At the same time, they face challenges in securing food or shelter: hundreds of thousands of residences have been obliterated, with 345,000 individuals confronting catastrophic food insecurity levels.

Mr. Dumont conveyed his striking observations regarding the severe conditions in Gaza shortly after returning from a mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territory:

“‘I require food, man’, Abdul Rahmen expressed to me. We were in the southwestern Gazan city of Khan Younis, where men ladled hot rice into bowls held out by a desperate assembly. One boy was weeping, terrified that the food, provided by the World Food Programme (WFP), would deplete before it was his turn.

‘I had aspirations. I had ambitions’, Rahmen articulated, describing expectations as devastated as the structures surrounding us. ‘But I require food. I can’t purchase bread’.

My arrival in Gaza came just the day prior, having undertaken a 10-hour journey from Amman on a bus filled with humanitarian workers. Some of that time was spent waiting at Israel’s Kerem Shalom border crossing into the enclave – one of the scant available routes to deliver essential humanitarian assistance. The 10-day visit, occurring in early December 2024, marked my first since the war erupted nearly 15 months ago.

WFP’s Jonathan Dumont in Gaza, where delivering humanitarian aid is fraught with challenges.

A substantial backlog of critically needed supplies – encompassing boxes of medications, food, and additional aid – awaited clearance there, along with the few available trucks and authorized drivers capable of navigating ruined roads, desperate crowds, and armed factions to deliver them.

The size of Gaza today is comparable to that of the US city of Detroit, now a heap of debris. Throughout this past year, I have visited numerous conflict zones – gang-affected Haiti, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, war-torn Khartoum in Sudan – but Gaza presents an entirely different scale of destruction. On one side, waves caress a Mediterranean shoreline, an illusion of calmness. On the opposite side lies relentless devastation, with black smoke billowing from smoldering structures.

Unlike many war-torn regions, there is no escape for Gazans from the conflict. They are entrapped.

As hunger escalates, more than 90 percent of the populace confronts “crisis” or more severe levels of food insecurity, as per the latest expert assessments. Over 300,000 individuals are likely undergoing catastrophic hunger – the utmost level of food insecurity.

A small boy scoops up the last rice grains in his bowl. Hunger is soaring in Gaza and the WFP food allowed to enter is limited.

‘Individuals are famished and furious’

The WFP supplies permitted to enter the enclave can only satisfy one-third of what is required to serve the most starving individuals. Over the months, we’ve had to reduce rations, and further cut back. In December, we aimed to assist 1.1 million people with merely 10 days’ worth of food, which comprises canned items, tomato paste, oil, and wheat flour.

Besieged North Gaza is the most famished region. In the last two months, hardly any supplies have trickled in.

‘Bread is now the most essential food for individuals, as it is so inexpensive,’ baker Ghattas Hakoura informed me at a WFP-supported bakery in Gaza City, found in the northern section of the enclave. Men and women were collecting loaves of pita, priced at three shekels, under US$1 per packet, in separate, tightly managed queues.

‘People are famished, and they’re enraged,’ Hakoura added. ‘They’ve lost their residences, their jobs, their families. There is no meat, no vegetables – and when vegetables are available, they carry exorbitant prices’.

Nabil Azab (right) stands near the greens his family is tending. Behind are the remains of the apartment building his family still lives in despite the danger.

A 25-kg sack of wheat flour can be priced at US$150. In an area where farmers once cultivated citrus, vegetables, and strawberries, I observed small peppers being sold at a Gaza City market for US$195 a kilogram. No one was purchasing. No one could afford it.

Ibrahim al-Balawi, holding his young daughter, relayed to me that she had never consumed a glass of milk in her life. All she had known was warfare.

That’s a concern for an alarming number of parents in Gaza, a territory where the sounds of drones and explosions resonate continuously, from the air, land, and sea.

‘I desire my children’s future to mirror that of any other child residing in any Arab nation,’ Hind Hassouna, a mother of four, confided to me in Khan Younis after our food distribution in the area. ‘To experience a dignified life, wear decent apparel, consume wholesome food, and enjoy a good life. The paramount aspect is to be free from fear – just

like any child in any Arab nation.

Khan Younis, similar to many areas of Gaza, has scarce remaining structures taller than four stories.

Decaying corpses in the sunlight

Currently, Hassouna’s children traverse 1.5 km each way to collect water. As she conversed in her tent dwelling – which could easily be toppled by gusts of wind or inundated by seasonal rains – they scooped up their small servings of WFP rice. This was likely their sole meal of the day. One young boy meticulously cleared his plate of every last grain, a faint smile gracing his face.

Children are enduring the harshest aspects of the conflict. While driving to the food distribution at Khan Younis, I noticed a lifeless horse among the debris. Nearby, a young girl rummaged through the refuse, searching for nourishment.

Later, as we drove to Gaza City in our armored vehicle, along the militarized Netzarim corridor separating the enclave’s northern and southern regions, we observed dead bodies strewn to the left and right, rotting in the sunlight. A short distance ahead, a small group of women and children made their way in that direction, lugging their possessions. They appeared hot and exhausted.

How will such experiences shape Gaza’s children as they mature? What is in store for their generation?

Abu Bilal demonstrates his precarious shelter, constructed under two concrete slabs from his previous apartment building.

Amidst the ruin, Gazans are seizing any hint of life they can fashion. In Khan Younis, Abu Bilal excavated his demolished home and repurposed the rubble to reconstruct the walls. Cement slabs from what used to be a multistory apartment building formed a fragile lean-to. He guided me around his space, featuring a basic toilet and an improvised plastic sink.

‘Perilous,’ he remarked about his dwelling, which could easily collapse during a storm or airstrike.

In what was once a densely populated area, Nabil Azab also showed me the remnants of his home. A former taxi chauffeur, he pointed out the contorted shell of the vehicle that once brought him his income. Like many families in Gaza, his has been displaced several times, shifting from one tent community to another.

When an airstrike struck his tent in the southern city of Rafah – wounding him and other family members – that was the tipping point. They, too, cleared the wreckage from their partially ruined abode in Khan Younis and returned inside. Their four-story building, among the few that still stand in the vicinity, dangerously leans atop a sandy ridge. Below, the family cultivates lettuce and other greens to assist in their survival. Yet, it’s insufficient.

‘I see my little daughter as she cries for food, and I feel utterly powerless,’ Azab shared with me. ‘There’s nothing I can do for her. Absolutely nothing.’”


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