Residents in northern Gaza are resorting to grinding animal feed into flour as food supplies dwindle, with aid convoys increasingly denied access, the BBC has reported. Children are going without food for days, and even stocks of animal feed are running out.
The UN has warned that acute malnutrition among young children in the north has risen sharply, exceeding the critical threshold of 15%. The UN's humanitarian coordination agency, Ocha, said more than half of aid missions to the north were denied access last month, with increasing interference from Israeli forces in aid delivery.
Mahmoud Shalabi, a medical aid worker in Beit Lahia, said people had been grinding animal feed grains into flour, but that supply has now been exhausted. 'What we had was from the six or seven days of truce [in November], and whatever aid was allowed into the north has been consumed,' he said. 'What people are eating right now is basically rice, and only rice.'
The World Food Programme said four out of the last five aid convoys into the north had been stopped by Israeli forces, creating a two-week gap between deliveries. Regional chief Matt Hollingworth said there was a 'very serious risk of famine' without regular food assistance.
Duha al-Khalidi, a mother of four in Beit Lahia, walked six miles to her sister's house in Gaza City after her children had not eaten for three days. 'I don't have any money, and even if I did, there's nothing in the town's main market,' she said. Her sister Waad added: 'We feel that death has become inevitable.'
A famine risk assessment estimated that almost a third of residents in northern areas face a 'catastrophic' lack of food. Families are also struggling to find clean water, with some digging into the ground to access water pipes. The Israeli military agency Cogat has denied there is starvation in Gaza, stating it does not limit aid.
