December 30 2008
People around the world will be about to celebrate the New Year – not here in Gaza. This is usually a time when people make new plans and have high hopes for the coming year. At the moment the people in Gaza are just hoping they are alive tomorrow.
Food is beginning to become a major issue. Only two weeks ago the UNRWA suspended the distribution of food in Gaza because of shortages. We pray there is some respite from the constant bombing – this will allow desperately needed aid to get in.
The crisis in Gaza seems to tick every box to make it a major humanitarian disaster; hunger, killing, insecurity and poverty. What makes the food situation even worse is that Gazans were already facing difficulties with food over the last year – now they are on the brink.
Eighty percent of Palestinians depend on international humanitarian assistance, that’s an incredible amount of people in such a small area of land. The rate of poverty is more that 80 percent. When we go out and assess what is needed you can see that the people are beyond despair. Food provided by Islamic Relief, the UN and other agencies is beginning to run out in people’s homes. The heads of households are despairing at the thought of how to feed their children.
Every family has a story of suffering. They will tell you about the shortage of food, of cooking gas and fuel and of course electricity. People have to queue for an hour to get bread. At the moment only a quarter of the bakeries are operating due to a shortage in gas and electricity. The amount of flour in Gaza is enough for two weeks.
There are 47 bakeries in Gaza, 27 of them have been closed for some time now, and those that are open are not open everyday.
It seems that Gaza has been in emergency mode for the past year – ever since the siege began. In 2008 Islamic Relief delivered food assistance to 40,000 Palestinian families in addition to supplying vast amounts of medical equipment, hygiene kits and kitchen tools reaching half a million people.
At the moment Islamic Relief is able to source food from suppliers here in Gaza. In a few days we will begin emergency food distribution. 2008 was a bitter year for Gazans – it looks like 2009 will be the same.