People in Gaza are in need of everything, but they need one thing above all else – an end to this war

As the crisis in Gaza passes its 200th day, an Islamic Relief aid worker* reflects on how his family and others have coped with shortages of food and cash, and uncertainty about the future.

It has been over 200 days since this war began, though I lost exact count a while ago. The situation feels like the worst day of our lives, but never ending. Every day and every night is the same; terrifying, full of death, full of fear, and full of suffering. Before now, every turn of events in this brutal attack on our lives sparked hopes for an end to the suffering, but all hopes have been in vain.

People are exhausted beyond description. Everyone is just looking for a piece of comfort even if that comfort is brought by death. The uncertainty of what might happen even in the next 5 minutes has made living a gamble, and we’re mostly losing. As I continue to write about my family’s struggle to survive in this situation, colleagues have asked me many things and offered suggestions for what readers outside of Gaza might like to know about the life we’re living.

Today, I will try to explain a few things about the reality in Gaza that I feel others have still not fully grasped.

1. The food crisis
   
   On day one of this escalation, Israel imposed a tighter siege on Gaza than existed even before. It blocked supplies of food, water, fuel, and electricity from entering. We were able to find basic items in the markets in the first few days of the war. But then, supplies dwindled further and further. As Gaza is dependent on importing most goods, people were finding it very hard to meet their needs. However, we could still find locally grown vegetables, some locally raised chicken and other meat, and things like lentils, rice, wheat, and beans were still stocked in stores – these canned items do not need electricity or special storage to stay fresh. Our diet started to be shaped by the supplies we could find.
   
   We ate lots of beans, chickpeas, peas, lentils, and rice. Most of our meals had only 1 or 2 ingredients. The hardest thing was the lack of flour. In the southern part of Gaza, there is a national flour mill that kept working through the first couple of months of the crisis, using the wheat stored in their silos. As flour prices rose, some families could no longer afford to buy flour. Even for those who could, making bread had become a challenge too since every market was running out of cooking gas. People depended on old methods like starting fires and using clay ovens to bake Saj (naan like bread).
   
   Things stayed this way for around 4 months. We all lost weight -I have lost about 10 kg. All around me, I notice people becoming much thinner. Children are suffering the most, especially those that need special formula or flour. My family managed to ration our consumption of bread, water… everything. But I noticed my kids’ skin getting yellowish and pale from the poor diet.
   
   Just as Ramadan started, things began to get easier as some supplies appeared in the markets – frozen chicken, more canned food, and basics like flour, sugar, oil and pasta – so people started preparing some proper food. Today, I can find most of the basics to prepare a proper meal for my family, though many others across Gaza still can’t and famine has become their reality. While my family can find food, we can’t find any cooking gas. In fact, we’ve completely run out. We need to start a wood fire to make meals and everyone is now tired of the smoke and dust. Everyone in our house has respiratory problems from the fires and the pollution of bombs falling from the sky all the time. We are back to struggling to make food.
   
2. Money troubles
   
   Another very pressing problem right now is the availability of banknotes. The banking system has collapsed, and Israel has deliberately targeted bank branches and ATMs across Gaza. I can’t withdraw any cash as the banks have stopped feeding the ATMs. I can’t buy things online or use my card either because most shops don’t have internet to process the payment, or else they refuse electronic payments because the sellers themselves need cash to buy bread, vegetables and other things.
   
3. Why are the people of Gaza so resilient?
   
   The truthful answer for that is that we are not. We are just normal people who dream of simple things. We are not superheroes. But, let me tell you something about us.
   
   My father was born in 1948, just a couple of months before the Nakba. He lived his life in refugee camps and experienced Israeli imprisonment. I was born a few years before the First Intifada in 1987 and started college during the Second Intifada in 2001. My children, aren’t even 10 years old yet but have lived through 3 wars and periods of never ending airstrikes. Despite all this, we have only one choice; to keep going.
   
   We are besieged in the world’s largest open-air prison, which is now becoming its largest graveyard. We are not allowed food or water, our houses are being bombed, and our livelihoods totally destroyed. And we are not allowed to go anywhere else. So, there is a common resolution to keep on living. Anyone in similar conditions may have looked to emigrate, but we do not. We just stay in our land, try to live, and try to find our way through all these obstacles.
   
   We are treated like lesser human beings here, but it is the same anywhere we go. Even before this escalation began, we were stopped at airports, investigated, not allowed visas for almost every country in the world. In cases where we did manage to travel, we were treated with the greatest of suspicion and are intensely scrutinised. So, we stay in our land. We keep on living despite the hardship. We lean on our faith to keep going. We believe that Allah will reward us. We want that reward in exchange for whatever comes our way. We see our relatives and loved ones killed and we simply say Alhamdulillah. We witness our houses being destroyed and we say we will build again. We are like that. If we stop keeping on, we might stop existing. But on the other hand, we hope there will be peace. We hope to see our children thrive and succeed. We wish for a vacation on a lovely beach. We enjoy making barbecues and watching football games, like everyone else.
   
4. What are the main needs now?
   
   The simple answer is everything. People need everything because they have lost everything. Today, the temperature is around 40 degrees and people are living in tents made of plastic. It is like staying in an inferno. Imagine enduring that heat without water, without sanitation services and without electricity. It is risking imminent death. Children have to stay either in the tent and get roasted in the heat or go outside and risk sunburn or sunstroke. At night, I have been seeing insects that I’ve never seen before now. Mosquitoes are everywhere, especially since sewage water surrounds the tent camps and there are small ditches for the sewage water to run between the tents and into the surrounding areas. I worry they will cause diseases to spread soon.
   
   As I mentioned before, cooking gas is desperately needed. In my house, it’s been 2 weeks since we ran out. Making a wood fire just to make a cup of tea or boil some potatoes is exhausting. Yes, wood fires can be fun on a camping trip in the wild, but doing it several times a day is hugely burdensome. We all try to avoid this task. Sometimes my sister will make food that doesn’t need to be cooked, like cheese sandwiches or just some biscuits, for lunch. I have been coughing for the past 3 months. The children in the house could fall ill at any time because the poor diet has weakened their immune systems.
   
   People are in need of everything, but one thing above all else: an end to this war. We know once the war ends we will be waking up to a new kind of unprecedented horror, as we begin the task of rebuilding our shattered lives and communities, but we accept that and pray that the war stops right now. An end to the war would mean that we could slowly restart our lives. We could try to return home, try to find our belongings under the rubble, check the broken windows, and try to stand arm in arm and help one another. Please, dear readers, please keep calling for an end to this war. I see the demonstrations around the world and I feel proud that the world is speaking up. I hope this will happen everywhere. I believe in the power of people. I believe in a better future where peace prevails and killing stops.

Please help Islamic Relief support people in desperate need in Gaza: Donate to our Palestine Emergency Appeal now.

*This blog is anonymised to protect the safety and security of our colleague and others mentioned. Read the other blogs in this series here.

Editor’s note: This blog was submitted amid a fast-changing and deepening crisis. The information was correct as of Thursday 25 April 2024.