The “suffering of people” in the Palestinian territories is “huge” as the stark reality of their desperation for food and other supplies is revealed in new footage captured by Sky News, a Gaza resident says.
An elderly man says he ate food off the floor, while a young girl says she and her family moved because “there was nothing to eat.”
United Nations estimates indicate that approximately 85% of the region's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced from their homes due to fighting between the forces of the ruling regime. agitation Group F Israeli Forces since the war broke out due to the massacre committed by Hamas on October 7 last year.
One in four Gazans face the risk of famine, and little food, water, medicine and other aid enters through the Israeli blockade.
According to the United Nations, about 576,000 people are at catastrophic or famine levels.
People climb to get food in Rafah, Gaza
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On one of the streets of the city of Rafah in the south of the country GazaPeople came together to help those most in need, offering small bowls of rice.
Khoko Bala Ahmed Al-Jathi told Sky News that he and others, including “good Samaritans”, were preparing two large pots of food.
But he says: “This is not enough for the entire region. People's suffering is great.”
In the clip, he picks up a small pot containing rice and says: “This is for 30 people!? No. God will take revenge on us. Whoever can help those 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.”
Khoko Bala Ahmed Al-Jathi said the food he helps make is not enough for the region
Khokho Bila Ahmed al Gathi in Rafah, Gaza
He also says, “40% of people get food, including those who travel long distances to get here [but] 60% of people leave unhappy without getting any food.”
“This is because it is not enough for everyone. We can only cook two or three large pots of food.
“Even if we made 10 pots, it would not be enough, because the area is densely populated.”
The footage shows dozens of people queuing up to try to fill their small containers.
An old man said he would eat food off the floor – “anything edible.”
An elderly man says he received help from an aid program but “the help is not enough, the help is not enough.”
He also says he ate food off the ground — “anything edible.”
“Look at my hand with the bowl in my hand…the time I was waiting to get this food. I pushed myself forward with the bowl and got the food. It wasn't enough. I asked them to put more in the bowl.” “They said, ‘No.’”
The desperate man says that there was a “lack of everything” and “it's not enough, I swear it's not enough.”
“Look at all the people, they all want it, all the people are queuing up and it's not enough, they are asking us to leave.”
He says he will eat whatever he finds, “Even if it's a piece of bread I'll pick it up and eat it. I eat food off the ground, and anything edible I'll pick it up and eat it.”
“I don't care what it is, all I care about is that I need to eat.”
Judy Lobad said she came to Rafah because she had nothing to eat
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An 11-year-old girl named Judy Lubad says that she and her family came to Rafah about a week ago after being displaced from northern Gaza.
“We came…to take food because we don't have any food, we don't have firewood to cook with, and we don't have anything to eat,” she says.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United Nations will carry out an “assessment mission” to determine what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza.
Since the war began, the Israeli assault on Gaza has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, and injured more than 58,000, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
Israel has vowed to continue its offensive until Hamas is destroyed throughout the territory, in response to the October 7 attacks when Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in southern Israel and kidnapped about 250 others.
