KHAN YOUNIS – Selama hampir 60 hari, tiada makanan, bahan api, ubat-ubatan atau barangan lain memasuki Semenanjung Gaza, disekat oleh Israel.
Kumpulan bantuan kehabisan makanan untuk diagihkan. Pasar hampir kosong. Keluarga Palestin terbiar bergelut untuk memberi makan anak-anak mereka.
Di kem khemah yang luas di luar bandar selatan Khan Younis, Mariam Al-Najjar dan ibu mertuanya mengosongkan empat tin kacang dan lobak merah ke dalam periuk dan merebusnya di atas api kayu. Mereka menambah sedikit bouillon dan rempah ratus.
Itu, dengan sepinggan nasi, adalah hidangan tunggal pada Jumaat untuk 11 ahli keluarga mereka, termasuk enam anak.
Dalam kalangan rakyat Palestin, “Jumaat adalah keramat,” hari untuk hidangan keluarga besar daging, sayur-sayuran yang disumbat atau hidangan tradisional lain yang kaya, kata Al-Najjar.
“Sekarang kami makan kacang dan nasi,” katanya.
“Kami tidak pernah makan kacang dalam tin sebelum perang. Hanya dalam peperangan ini yang telah memusnahkan hidup kami.”
Kira-kira 2.3 juta rakyat Palestin di Gaza kini kebanyakannya hidup daripada sayur-sayuran dalam tin, nasi, pasta dan kacang lentil.
Daging, susu, keju dan buah telah hilang. Roti dan telur adalah terhad. Beberapa sayur-sayuran atau barangan lain di pasar telah melambung tinggi harganya, tidak mampu dimiliki oleh kebanyakan orang.
“Kami tidak boleh mendapatkan apa-apa yang menyediakan sebarang protein atau nutrien,” kata Al-Najjar.
KACANG DAN ROTI DICELUP DALAM TEH
Israel mengenakan sekatan pada 2 Mac, kemudian memusnahkan gencatan senjata selama dua bulan dengan meneruskan operasi ketenteraan pada 18 Mac.
Ia berkata kedua-dua langkah itu bertujuan untuk menekan Hamas supaya membebaskan tebusan.
Kumpulan hak asasi manusia menyifatkan sekatan itu sebagai “taktik kelaparan” yang membahayakan seluruh penduduk dan potensi jenayah perang.
Barang demi barang, makanan telah hilang, kata Al-Najjar.
Apabila daging tidak tersedia, dia mendapat sardin dalam tin. Ia sudah tiada.
Mereka pernah menerima karton susu daripada PBB yang berakhir beberapa minggu lalu.
Seminggu sekali, dia pernah membeli tomato untuk memberi salad kepada anak-anaknya. Sekarang dia tidak mampu membeli tomato.
Kini, mereka melakukan rutin tin kacang atau kacang polong dan lobak merah, katanya.
Apabila mereka tidak menemuinya, mereka mendapatkan lentil atau pasta dari dapur amal.
Jika dia menemui roti atau gula, dia memberi anak-anaknya roti yang dicelup dalam teh untuk menahan rasa lapar mereka, katanya.
“Saya takut anak-anak anak saya akan mati kelaparan,” kata ibu mertua Mariam, Sumaya Al-Najjar. Wanita berusia 61 tahun itu berkata dia dan suaminya menghidap kanser; dia telah berhenti mengambil ubatnya kerana ia tidak dapat diperoleh, dan suaminya sedang dirawat di hospital.
Mariam bimbang bagaimana dia akan memberi makan kepada anak-anaknya apabila apa yang tinggal di Gaza kehabisan.
“Mungkin kita akan makan pasir,” katanya.
MALNUTRISI MELANDA KANAK-KANAK PADA MASA PENTING DALAM PERKEMBANGAN MEREKA
Doktor memberi amaran, kekurangan variasi, protein dan nutrien lain dalam diet kanak-kanak akan menyebabkan kerosakan jangka panjang kepada kesihatan mereka.
Dr Ayman Abu Teir, ketua jabatan Pemakanan Terapeutik di Hospital Nasser Khan Younis, berkata bilangan kes kekurangan zat makanan telah “meningkat dengan cara yang sangat ketara”.
Susu khas untuk mereka sudah habis katanya.
PBB berkata ia mengenal pasti 3,700 kanak-kanak mengalami kekurangan zat makanan akut pada Mac, meningkat 80 peratus daripada Februari.
“Kanak-kanak memerlukan piramid makanan untuk perkembangan mereka,” kata Abu Teir: daging, telur, ikan dan tenusu untuk pertumbuhan mereka, buah-buahan dan sayur-sayuran untuk membina sistem imun mereka.
“Ini tidak wujud di Gaza,” katanya.
Dia berkata seorang kanak-kanak berumur 1 tahun dengan berat 10 kilo (22 paun) memerlukan kira-kira 700 kalori sehari.
Empat tin kacang dan lobak merah dalam hidangan Jumaat Al-Najjars berjumlah kira-kira 1,000 kalori, menurut maklumat label – tidak termasuk nasi yang mereka makan – dibahagikan kepada 11 orang, termasuk enam kanak-kanak berumur antara 6 dan 14 tahun.
Israel sebelum ini berkata Gaza mempunyai bantuan yang mencukupi selepas lonjakan pengedaran semasa gencatan senjata, dan ia menuduh Hamas mengalihkan bantuan untuk tujuannya. Pekerja kemanusiaan menafikan terdapat lencongan yang ketara, mengatakan PBB memantau dengan ketat pengedaran.
Pada hari baru-baru ini di pasar jalanan Khan Younis, kebanyakan gerai kosong. Yang buka memaparkan timbunan kecil tomato, timun, terung layu dan bawang.
Seorang mempunyai beberapa tin kemek kacang. Di salah satu daripada beberapa kedai runcit yang beroperasi, rak kosong kecuali satu dengan beg pasta.
Tomato dijual pada harga 50 shekel sekilo, hampir $14, berbanding kurang daripada satu dolar sebelum perang.
“Saya bermimpi makan tomato,” kata Khalil Al-Faqawi, berdiri di hadapan gerai kosong.
Dia berkata dia mempunyai sembilan orang untuk diberi makan.
“Anak-anak minta daging, ayam, biskut. Kami tidak dapat menyediakannya,” katanya.
“Lupakan tentang daging. Kami ada lentil. Hebat. Terima kasih banyak-banyak. Apa yang berlaku apabila lentil habis?”
Satu-satunya sayur-sayuran adalah yang ditanam di Gaza. Tentera Israel telah memusnahkan sebahagian besar tanah ladang dan rumah hijau wilayah itu atau menutupnya dalam zon tentera di mana sesiapa yang mendekati berisiko ditembak.
Pengeluaran ladang yang tinggal telah jatuh kerana kekurangan air dan bekalan.
Mahmoud Al-Shaer berkata rumah hijaunya menghasilkan paling banyak 150 kilo (330 paun) tomato seminggu berbanding 600 kilogram (1,300 paun) sebelum perang.
Itu pun tidak boleh dikekalkan, katanya.
“Dalam dua minggu atau sebulan, anda tidak akan menemui apa-apa sama sekali.”
Israel telah meratakan sebahagian besar Gaza dengan kempen udara dan daratnya. Ia telah membunuh lebih 51,000 rakyat Palestin, kebanyakannya wanita dan kanak-kanak, menurut Kementerian Kesihatan Gaza, yang jumlahnya tidak membezakan antara orang awam dan pejuang.
Hampir keseluruhan penduduk telah dihalau dari rumah mereka. Beratus-ratus ribu tinggal di kem khemah.
Di Khan Younis, kanak-kanak mengerumuni Dapur Amal Rafah, sambil menghulurkan periuk besi. Pekerja memasukkan lentil rebus ke dalam setiap satu.
Dapur sedemikian adalah satu-satunya alternatif kepada pasar. Program makanan lain ditutup di bawah sekatan.
Dapur juga menghadapi penutupan.
Program Makanan Sedunia (WFP) berkata pada Jumaat ia menghantar stok makanan terakhirnya ke 47 dapur yang disokongnya – yang terbesar di Gaza – yang dikatakan akan kehabisan makanan untuk dihidangkan dalam beberapa hari.
Dapur hanya boleh menyediakan lentil atau pasta dan nasi biasa.
Hani Abu Qasim, di Dapur Amal Rafah, berkata mereka telah mengurangkan saiz bahagian juga.
“Orang-orang yang bergantung kepada kami ini diancam kelaparan jika dapur ini ditutup,” kata Hani.
AN-AP
For nearly 60 days, Israel has blocked food from Gaza. Palestinians struggle to feed their families
KHAN YOUNIS – For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other item has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel. Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare. Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.
In the sprawling tent camp outside the southern city of Khan Younis, Mariam Al-Najjar and her mother-in-law emptied four cans of peas and carrots into a pot and boiled it over a wood fire. They added a little bouillon and spices.
That, with a plate of rice, was the sole meal on Friday for the 11 members of their family, including six children.
Among Palestinians, “Fridays are sacred,” a day for large family meals of meat, stuffed vegetables or other rich traditional dishes, Al-Najjar said.
“Now we eat peas and rice,” she said.
“We never ate canned peas before the war. Only in this war that has destroyed our lives.”
The around 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are now mainly living off canned vegetables, rice, pasta and lentils.
Meat, milk, cheese and fruit have disappeared. Bread and eggs are scarce. The few vegetables or other items in the market have skyrocketed in price, unaffordable for most.
“We can’t get anything that provides any protein or nutrients,” Al-Najjar said.
Beans, peas and bread dunked in tea
Israel imposed the blockade on March 2, then shattered a two-month ceasefire by resuming military operations March 18. It said both steps aim to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages. Rights groups call the blockade a “starvation tactic” endangering the entire population and a potential war crime.
Item by item, foods have disappeared, Al-Najjar said.
When meat became unavailable, she got canned sardines. Those are gone.
They used to receive cartons of milk from the UN That ended weeks ago.
Once a week, she used to buy tomatoes to give her children a salad. Now she can’t afford tomatoes.
Now, they are on a routine of cans of beans or peas and carrots, she said.
When they can’t find that, they get lentils or pasta from a charity kitchen.
If she finds bread or sugar, she gives her kids bread dunked in tea to stave off their hunger, she said.
“I’m afraid my son’s children will die of hunger,” said Mariam’s mother-in-law Sumaya Al-Najjar. The 61-year-old said she and her husband have cancer; she has stopped taking her medication because its unobtainable, and her husband is being treated in a hospital.
Mariam worries how she’ll feed her children when what’s left in Gaza runs out.
“Maybe we’ll eat sand,” she said.
Malnutrition hitting children at a key time in their development
Doctors warn that the lack of variety, protein and other nutrients in children’s diet will cause long-term damage to their health.
Dr. Ayman Abu Teir, head of the Therapeutic Feeding department at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, said the number of malnutrition cases has “increased in a very substantial way.”
Specialized milk for them has run out, he said. The UN said it identified 3,700 children suffering from acute malnutrition in March, up 80 percent from February.
“Children need the food pyramid for their development,” Abu Teir said: meat, eggs, fish and dairy for their growth, fruits and vegetables to build their immune systems.
“These do not exist in Gaza,” he said.
He said a 1-year-old child weighing 10 kilos (22 pounds) needs about 700 calories a day.
The four cans of peas and carrots in the Al-Najjars’ Friday meal totaled about 1,000 calories, according to label information — not counting the rice they also ate – split among 11 people, including six children between the ages of 6 and 14.
Israel has previously said Gaza had enough aid after a surge in distribution during the ceasefire., and it accuses Hamas of diverting aid for its purposes. Humanitarian workers deny there is significant diversion, saying the UN strictly monitors distribution.
On a recent day in a Khan Younis street market, most stalls were empty. Those open displayed small piles of tomatoes, cucumbers, shriveled eggplants and onions.
One had a few dented cans of beans and peas. At one of the few working grocery stores, the shelves were bare except for one with bags of pasta.
Tomatoes sell for 50 shekels a kilo, almost $14, compared to less than a dollar before the war.
“I dream of eating a tomato,” said Khalil Al-Faqawi, standing in front of the empty stalls.
He said he has nine people to feed.
“The children ask for meat, for chicken, for a cookie. We can’t provide it,” he said.
“Forget about meat. We’ve got lentils. Great. Thank you very much. What happens when the lentils run out?”
The only vegetables are those grown in Gaza. Israeli troops have destroyed the vast majority of the territory’s farmland and greenhouses or closed them off within military zones where anyone approaching risks being shot.
The remaining farms’ production has fallen for lack of water and supplies.
Mahmoud Al-Shaer said his greenhouses yield at most 150 kilos (330 pounds) of tomatoes a week compared to 600 kilos (1,300 pounds) before the war.
Even that can’t be sustained, he said.
“In two weeks or a month, you won’t find any at all.”
Israel has leveled much of Gaza with its air and ground campaign. It has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Almost the entire population has been driven from their homes. Hundreds of thousands live in tent camps.
In Khan Younis, children mobbed the Rafah Charity Kitchen, holding out metal pots. Workers ladled boiled lentils into each one.
Such kitchens are the only alternative to the market. Other food programs shut down under the blockade.
The kitchens also face closure. The World Food Program said Friday it delivered its last food stocks to the 47 kitchens it supports — the biggest in Gaza — which it said will run out of meals to serve within days.
Kitchens can provide only lentils or plain pasta and rice. Hani Abu Qasim, at the Rafah Charity Kitchen, said they have reduced portion size as well.
“These people who depend on us are threatened with starvation if this kitchen closes,” Abu Qasim said.
AN-AP
