In Gaza... Palestinian Mothers Risk Their Lives to Bring Food to Their Scared Children

SadaNews - The suffering of Palestinian mothers in the Gaza Strip is increasing amid food shortages, as they seek to provide safety for their children amidst the war launched by Israel in response to Hamas's attack in October 2023.

The American network "CNN" documented the struggles of the mothers; they live in tents surrounded by large crowds of men and embark on long, dangerous journeys to where aid trucks are expected to pass into Gaza.

It presented the life stories of a group of single mothers supporting their children, who seek protection in each other’s company, like a woman named Um Khudur, who said they could be exposed to Israeli fire, and once the aid trucks arrive, they will have to struggle their way through thousands of men if they want to obtain a bag of flour and keep it.

Um Khudur, a mother of three, said: "Everything around us threatens our lives, whether it's thieves, Israeli soldiers, rockets, or drones. Everything."

Her friend Walaa recounted what happened the previous day when she managed to get a bag of flour after waiting for ten hours from dawn until dusk, saying: "Then a young man with a knife said: (Drop the flour or I will kill you) and I handed it to him."

The network reported that their feet hurt, and they have to take breaks repeatedly during the walk that may take two hours to where the aid trucks might pass.

They pointed out that their friend Maryam gave birth just three weeks ago, but she has been making the same journey every day since last week in hopes of securing food for her three older children, with slim hope of getting formula to feed her newborn; that night ended in disappointment when no aid trucks passed, and they all returned empty-handed.

A Terrible Choice

The lack of allowable aid into Gaza, the breakdown of law and order, and the dismantling of UN-led delivery systems have led to new levels of despair, according to relief organizations, as those struggling for survival are left with nothing.

Throughout several weeks in June and July, the network said it followed a group of Palestinian women facing a terrible choice: risking their lives, which could deprive their families of their remaining sole provider, or watching their children starve.

Um Al-Abed said: "My children tell me: Don't go, Mom, don't go to the relief centers, we don't want you to die, Mom. Who will take care of us if harm comes to you?" Her husband was killed in an Israeli airstrike, and she now raises her family alone, she said.

The pot of soup she managed to secure from a crowded charity kitchen was not enough to feed her eight hungry children; hence, like many Palestinians in Gaza, Um Al-Abed eventually tried her luck with aid trucks, making the journey at night while her children were sleeping.

Like most women on that road, she returned empty-handed, she said.

The network noted that the threat facing their children is real; food consumption levels have reached famine thresholds across most of the Gaza Strip, as have rates of acute malnutrition in Gaza City where women live, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification supported by the UN.

According to the World Health Organization, 63 people died from hunger in July alone, including 25 children, all under the age of five, except for one child.

The UN agency reported on Sunday that over 11,500 children sought treatment for malnutrition in hospitals and clinics in Gaza, which barely operated during June and July, adding that nearly one in five of them suffers from severe acute malnutrition, the most life-threatening form.

The World Health Organization announced that the crisis is severely harming pregnant and breastfeeding women, with recent data showing that over 40 percent of them suffer from acute malnutrition.

Israel announced over the weekend that it would halt fighting in certain areas and establish corridors for ground humanitarian aid delivery; however, very little food is reaching Gaza to meet the needs of 2.2 million people, who have entered a crisis described last week by the UK, France, and Germany as "man-made and preventable."

Israel has imposed an 11-week blockade on all aid to the sector since March, and finally redistributed it in late May through the controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza humanitarian foundation.

Instead of the 400 aid distribution points previously managed by the UN, Palestinians can only access food through four sites run by the Gaza humanitarian foundation, or in overcrowded soup kitchens, or by stopping and seizing aid trucks as they pass through the sector.

Looted bags of flour are sold in the market at exorbitant prices, unaffordable for these women and their children.

Friendship and Despair

After several unsuccessful attempts in June to obtain food from aid trucks, Um Khudur received a donation from a sympathetic stranger on the way. She shared a bag of flour with her neighbor Um Bilal, who was struggling to feed her five children.

Their friendship and companionship peaked amid overwhelming suffering, as their hungry children's cries were often unbearable. Um Bilal said her youngest daughter sometimes pulls her hair while screaming in pain.

Both women said they often go days without food so that their children can have every drop of the soup they obtain, yet the children always go to sleep hungry.

Over the weeks, their despair increased. They decided to try their luck at the global humanitarian aid distribution sites, where the majority of the killings related to aid, totaling 1,100 incidents, have occurred since May, according to the UN and the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israel admits to firing warning shots but denies responsibility for the high number of deaths, while the World Health Organization dismisses the allegations, saying the statistics are exaggerated.

Um Khudur recalls while speaking with the women on Friday: "The American aid points are death zones. I reached one of them and spent the night there. A sniper shot above my head. The bullet missed me by a few centimeters," and she has not returned since.

Um Bilal dissolves salt in water to feed her children between their sporadic meals. This is not the first time she has experienced hunger during the war that followed Hamas's attacks. She said: "We used to eat animal fodder. A year ago, our bodies could handle it, but now, famine on top of famine, our bodies cannot bear it anymore." Now, she has become too weak to make those long journeys.

Yet Um Bilal has not given up; she has encountered tanks, avoided gunfire, and fainted from sunstroke and exhaustion while trying to get food from moving UN trucks or from sites of the Gaza humanitarian foundation, but her desperate efforts to feed her children often go in vain.

Her ten-year-old daughter Dalia said: "My mom is not like the youth; she goes and returns empty-handed. She asks me what we will eat for lunch or dinner, and I tell her: It's alright, don't cry, Mom."