Gaza is starving as Israel’s aid blockade continues, aid official says

Palestinians wait for donated food in Gaza on Wednesday. Moiz Salhi/AFP via Getty hide caption toggle caption Moiz Salhi/AFP via Getty It’s been more than 19 months since Hamas launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel, which responded with a punishing assault on Gaza that has become a humanitarian catastrophe. Since early March, shortly before the breakdown of a tenuous ceasefire, Israel has been imposing a blockade of Gaza — denying the entry of all goods, including food, medical supplies and critical supplies. Now, “the entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity,” with one in five people facing starvation, according to the most recent report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). “Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks,” the report released Monday states. Sponsor Message The U.S. and Israel announced a plan to get aid back into Gaza, but there’s no official timeline yet on when that plan would be rolled out. The program is an about-face from Israel’s earlier policy to withhold aid to pressure Hamas to free Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza. Aid groups have strongly criticized the proposal. All Things Considered host Juana Summers spoke with Antoine Renard, the representative and country director of the United Nations World Food Programme in the Palestinian territories about the crisis he’s watching play out in Gaza. “One of the families … was telling me that their kids [are] counting the lentils,” he said. “They were counting 16 lentils into the soup. And that’s [their] main meal for the day.” Renard added that families are so desperate for flour that they are crushing pasta, to make bread for their children. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Interview highlights Juana Summers: Even when aid was able to get into Gaza, food was quite scarce. Now, more than two months into this blockade, how would you describe the situation there? Antoine Renard: It’s actually difficult to find proper words to describe what is happening. After the cease fire in mid-January, we were really — as humanitarians — for the first time, since the beginning of the war, managing to reach the population at scale. Sponsor Message Since the second of March, with a full closure now for more than 70 days, what you find is a population that is eating one, one-and-a-half meals per day, maximum. Wheat flour, a bag of 25 kilograms (about 55 pounds), is actually now $560. So, the challenge that you have is that most of the population are not able to afford such a cost. And the challenge that you have, as well, is the quality of the wheat flour that is left — it’s in very bad condition. People are smashing macaroni to do bread, so that the kids can actually still see bread on the table, if there is a table. Middle East The U.S. has a plan for getting food into Gaza. Top aid groups object to the idea Summers: The WFP has said it ran out of food to support its hot meal kitchens in Gaza a few weeks ago. All of your bakeries closed a month before that. What is it like to have to shut down your organization’s support network in Gaza at a time where there’s just so much need? Renard: We used to serve 1 million meals per day until the end of April with all the different actors on the ground, not just the World Food Programme. Then it started to be half a million a week ago, and now we are at 250,000 meals per day. Food is not even 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) from where people are. Summers: If this blockade were to be completely lifted right now, would that be enough to undo the damage that has already been done there in Gaza in terms of malnutrition? Because of a flour shortage, a Palestinian woman resorts to grinding lentils into dough to make bread. Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images Renard: The impact will actually last for a long time. You’ve got a number of children that are [still] growing. They need to have a proper and adequate dietary diversity. They don’t have meat, they don’t have dairy products, they don’t have fish. There is no fruit anymore into Gaza. There’s barely still some vegetables. It will clearly have a long term impact related to those that have been now 19 months into this conflict. Sponsor Message Summers: You’ve been able to see firsthand what many of our listeners have not. What do you think is important for them to know when to understand about the situation there — the hunger that is being experienced? Middle East New documentary charges killing of Palestinian American journalist was intentional Renard: I think that the most important thing for us is to remind [people that] the population there has a human face. They actually are part of humanity. And they deserve to have a future. And that’s why, even if it looks very dire and bleak now, this is why we need to continue to advocate, to give them also a sense of humanity. This piece was adapted for the web by Manuela Lopez Restrepo and edited by Karen Zamora.