Huda Helles enjoyed a brief respite during the first days of the latest two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
She lived with her family of eight in a makeshift tent in Al-Wihda Street, central Gaza City, after their house in Al-Shujaiya was bombed by an Israeli air strike in 2023. She and her family had a plan for the various dishes they wanted to cook during Ramadan.
That plan was turned upside down on 2 March, when Israel closed the borders, halting the entry of all humanitarian aid, food, and goods into Gaza. The renewed blockade has brought the enclave to the brink of famine once again.
“We used to cook a variety of dishes every day, but now, for over 20 days, all we’ve had is rice,” Huda said. “Now it’s starting to give me severe stomach cramps.”
On Wednesday, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said in its latest update that Israel’s ban on entry of aid has continued for nearly a month and that no aid entered the enclave throughout this period. All requests by humanitarian agencies to coordinate access with Israeli authorities have been denied
Moreover, Israeli attacks killed eight humanitarian workers since its unilateral decision to resume hostilities on Gaza on 18 March, bringing the total number of aid workers killed by the Israeli army in Gaza to 399, OCHA said.
Helles recalled when the blockade was imposed. The shops were empty within hours, and what was left was too expensive, she said. Even the charity distributions, which once offered a variety of meals, have dwindled, now providing only small servings of rice at the time of Iftar.
After days of eating little more than rice, Huda couldn’t sleep at night, suffering from severe stomach pain and colic. She was diagnosed with a stomach infection two weeks ago.
“Doctors advised me to eat healthy food and avoid canned goods,” she said. “But there’s nothing else to eat except the low-quality charity distribution. I am surviving on eating only bread and cheese, when possible.”
Helles’s mother, Manal, 52, was also supposed to eat healthy food. She suffered a heart attack and high blood pressure at the beginning of this month. Huda thinks that the main reason for her mother’s deteriorating health is living in the harsh conditions in the tents, including the dire lack of food and clean water for drinking.
“During Ramadan, my mother used to prepare a beautiful spread of chicken, meat, and vegetables, carefully preparing each dish for the family,” Huda recalled. “Now, she looks at us helplessly, asking us to hang on, hoping that the starvation will not last much longer.”
‘We lived on canned hummus’
Before the ceasefire, Huda and her family had been displaced to Khan Younis, in the southern part of Gaza.
“We were not able to find a piece of bread. For two months, we lived only on canned hummus.”
During the ceasefire, Huda and her family feared the return of war and the famine that would inevitably follow. And that is what has happened. “It’s unfair to live in starvation again,” she said.
Ahmed Ramda, 38, also struggles to find something to eat or feed his four children during Israel’s current complete blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid, including food. He thinks that the blockade’s impact is even worse than last year.
“We no longer have the energy to flee from one place to another, fetch water, or even recover from wounds due to the lack of food and medical care,” he said.
“They want us to be homeless, reliant on limited humanitarian aid, but all we want is for the borders to open so we can work, make a living, and live in peace.”
He was once a driver, but his car was bombed by Israeli air strikes in November 2023 while he and his family were evacuating. His house was also destroyed, his father killed, and many other family members were wounded.
Now, Ramda and his family live in a tent on Omar Al-Mukhtar Street in central Gaza.
“My children cry every day, refusing to eat the lentils or rice from the charity distributions. They ask me for chicken, meat, and fruits,” Ahmed said. “Their mother even lied to them, telling them she put minced meat in the food, but it melted while cooking.”
“I wish to be dead before the moment I see my children starve to death.”
In January 2024, Ramda and his wife, Sana, welcomed their baby girl, Misk, into the world in their displacement tent in Deir al-Balah, in the middle of the Gaza Strip. However, due to the lack of proper nutrition, Sana had a difficult time breastfeeding Misk.
Tragically, Misk died of malnutrition in August 2024.
“Sana struggled to breastfeed Misk due to the lack of healthy food and because we couldn’t afford what was available in the markets,” Ramda explained through tears.
Meanwhile, his 10-year-old daughter, Jori, has been battling dehydration.
“I lost one daughter, and I’m terrified of losing another before the borders open and we get food,” he said. “I appeal to the world to end our suffering – not for us, the adults, but for the sake of our children, who are deprived of their most basic rights.
“If the borders open, I hope to flee Gaza, seeking a new life in Norway or Belgium, where I can find a job and live in peace with my family.”
‘We want the war to end’
Mazen Marouf, 48, a farmer, struggles to survive with his 11-member family. During the ceasefire, he and his six sons had planted tomatoes and onions on their farmland in Beit Lahia, hoping to feed themselves and make a living from their crops.
But when Israel broke the ceasefire on 18 March, their plans were shattered.
“Israeli artillery and aerial shelling began suddenly in the morning. We could only take our tent,” Marouf said. “We didn’t know where to go.”
Marouf and his family could hardly find an empty place to set up their tent in Al-Yarmouk neighbourhood due to the crowded movement of displaced people. They are still struggling to find something to eat, as they have no money and were unable to bring any food with them when they evacuated.
The north of the Gaza Strip, especially Beit Hanoun, was once considered the food basket of Gaza, but has been decimated by the war. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), at least 67.6 percent of cropland in northern Gaza has been destroyed by Israel.
“We only eat when charity distributions come or when others share their canned food,” Marouf explained. “My family and I are sick and suffering from malnutrition.”
“We don’t want to rely on humanitarian aid. We want the war to stop now and to live in peace and dignity.”
