LONDON: Footage captured by Sky News depicts the stark reality of Israel’s siege on Gaza, with over a million Palestinian civilians starving and desperate for food and supplies.
According to the UN, nearly 85 percent of the 2.3 million people living in the occupied Palestinian territory have been displaced since October.
Approximately 576,000 people are at risk of starvation or catastrophe, the organization has revealed, with only a trickle of food, water, medicine and other aid making its way through.
In a street in Rafah, southern Gaza, people have come together to help those most in need. Khokho Bila Ahmed Al-Gathi told Sky News how he and a number of others cooked two large pots of food to share out.
“This is not enough for the whole area ... The suffering of the people is huge,” he said, picking up a small container.
“This for 30 people? No. May God take our revenge. Those who can help the people in need should do so. The suffering here is real, we used to hear about things like this before but now it is real. We are living it now.”
He added: “Forty percent of the people get food, including those who travel far distances to get here (but) 60 percent leave unhappy. This is because it is not enough for all. Even if we make 10 pots it will still not be enough, this is because the area is very densely populated.”
This video shows dozens of people lining up. One elderly man said he was receiving help from organizations but that the aid was “not enough.”
He also admitted to eating “anything that is edible” from the floor.
“The time I was waiting to get this food … I forced myself to the front with the pot and got the food. I told them to put more in. They said ‘no’.”
The distraught man claimed there was “a lack of everything,” adding: “Look at all the people, they all want it, all the people are queuing and it is not enough, they tell us to leave.”
He said he would eat whatever he found, “even if it’s a piece of bread I will pick it up and eat it. I eat food off the floor. I don’t care what it is, I only care that I need to eat.”
An 11-year-old girl, Jodi Lubad, said she and her family moved to Rafah a week ago after being displaced from northern Gaza.
“We have come ... to take food because we do not have any, nor do we have any wood to cook with, we have nothing to eat,” she told Sky News.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated the UN will conduct an “assessment mission” to determine what steps must be taken to allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza.
According to the health ministry there, Israel’s assault has killed over 23,000 Palestinians, nearly two-thirds of whom are women and children, and injured over 58,000 more.
