- VIVA.co.id/Arianti Widya
Gaza – Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to resort to extreme measures amid growing starvation as a result of Israel's relentless bombardment and a full siege imposed since October.
Many families across the besieged enclave had to mix various ingredients into flour to make bread using traditional methods, due to the scarcity of food.
Families have been forced to use animal fodder and bird feed baked into their bread, sometimes causing medical problems, particularly in young children.
Abu Alaa, an owner of a mill in central Gaza, said that the food available to people is inedible.
“Something should be done about this urgently,” he said, as reported from Middle Eyes site.
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“People are mixing bird feed and animal food into their food. This is not right, it's not healthy. People are grinding this and mixing it into their bread.”
He explained that this is happening due to a lack of aid deliveries as well as the sharp skyrocketing prices of goods that are available.
Abu Alaa remarked that he has been forced to reduce the price of wheat due to the dire circumstances, despite rising costs hitting everyone.
Families wait in line for hours every day to get just a few pounds of flour. However, often, by the time families get to the front of the queue, the flour would have already run out.
Meanwhile, on many occasions, people are forced to scatter due to Israeli bombardment.
According to a report by the UN in December, 93 percent of the people in Gaza are facing crisis levels of hunger, and a quarter of the population of the strip faces “catastrophic hunger and starvation.”
On Thursday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that "the entire population is acutely food insecure. More than a quarter of them – half a million people – are at IPC5, the most extreme stage of hunger. They are starving".
Euro-Med Human Rights said that it had documented numerous deaths from starvation, including infants.
Mixing animal feed into bread has already started to have adverse effects on people’s health, however, despite this, families say they have no other alternative.
Abu Anas, a local who lives near a mill, said that any food available in Gaza is no longer affordable, particularly after nearly all bakeries and supermarkets in the Strip have been bombed.
Instead, families are using “stone age” techniques and makeshift ovens to make food, and, if they have the means, sell it.
Residents are also pumping water from wells, and mixing sea water and wastewater amid a shortage of clean water.
Jaber, another local in Gaza, says that even if the taste is bad, he and others are mixing different types of flour and ingredients to make bread.
“Sometimes the bread is made and it comes out red or yellow because of the ingredients mixed in it,” he said, adding that this is not healthy.
Ground barley and corn are also being mixed into the flour. In some cases, Palestinians have been forced to trawl through the ground to find scraps of food.
