As Israel’s forced starvation tightens its grip on Gaza’s entire population, an increasing number of Palestinian families are frantically searching for news of loved ones who undertook perilous journeys to get food from aid distribution points, never to return.
Khaled Obaid has been searching for his beloved son, Ahmed, for two months, scanning every passing vehicle on the coastal road in Deir-el-Balah, hoping against all odds that one of them might bring him home. Ahmed had left the displaced family’s tent in the central town to find food for his parents and sister, who had lost her husband during the war, and headed to the Zikim crossing point, where aid trucks enter northern Gaza.
“He hasn’t returned until now. He went because he was hungry. We have nothing to eat,” the distraught father told newsmen breaking down in tears with his wife under the blue tarpaulin where they are sheltering. Khaled reported his son’s disappearance to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and every official body he could reach, to radio silence. To this day, he has received no answers on Ahmed’s whereabouts.
The story of Khaled and his son Ahmed is all too common under Israel’s ongoing punishing blockade of Gaza, where the largely displaced population faces a stark choice between starvation and braving the bullets fired by Israeli soldiers and United States security contractors in a bid to get food from Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites. These distribution points have been dubbed “death traps” and “human slaughterhouses” by the United Nations and rights groups.
The life-or-death gamble that Palestinians are forced to take has taken the lives of nearly 1,400 people, shot dead mainly by the Israeli army, at the aid sites since they started operations in late May and along food convoy routes, according to figures released by the UN last week. That is, without counting the untold numbers of missing aid seekers, like Ahmed.
Human rights monitors have been collecting harrowing firsthand accounts of people who have gone missing in Gaza, only to be found later, killed by Israeli forces. “In many cases, those who went missing are apparently killed near the aid distribution points, but due to the Israeli targeting, their bodies remained unreachable,” Maha Hussaini, the head of media at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, told newsmen.
“Many Palestinians left home with empty hands, hoping to return with a bag of flour. But many never came back,” said Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir-el-Balah. “In Gaza, the line between survival and disappearance is now heartbreakingly thin.” As the number of missing aid seekers mounts, famine stalks the enclave, with more than 80 adults reportedly dying of starvation over the past five weeks alone, and 93 children succumbing to man-made malnutrition since the war began.
The situation has sparked widespread international condemnation, with many calling for an immediate ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called on the UN Security Council to “assume its responsibilities” by enforcing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, conducting an official visit to the territory and implementing calls at a recent UN conference in New York for a two-state solution.
In a statement posted on social media, the ministry warned that more than two million Palestinians in Gaza are “living in a tight death circle of killing, starvation, thirst, and deprivation of medicine, treatment, and all basic human rights”. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has described the situation as “catastrophic”, and UNICEF has warned that 28 children – essentially an entire “classroom” – are dying each day from Israeli bombardment and lack of aid.
The situation in Gaza is dire, and urgent action is needed to prevent further suffering and loss of life. The international community must come together to pressure Israel to lift its blockade and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The UN Security Council must take immediate action to enforce a ceasefire and protect the civilian population. The lives of millions of Palestinians depend on it.