“Not even my chickens want to eat the remains of our cans of beans and peas. Not even the chickens! The saddest thing is that the survival of many people in Gaza depends on these preserves. It is our main food,” laments Samir Zaqut, deputy director of the Palestinian NGO Al Mezan, in a telephone conversation with this newspaper from the center of the Strip, where he is taking refuge with his wife. In almost seven months of war, more than 50% of Gaza’s goats, chickens, sheep and cows have died and 42% of cultivated land, 26% of greenhouses and a large part of wells have been left unusable, according to UN figures. The markets are practically empty, closed or turned into ruins, the few vegetables that are for sale have prohibitive prices and humanitarian aid continues to arrive in dribs and drabs.
Circumstances make canned food the daily menu of a large part of the inhabitants of the Strip. That’s when you’re lucky, because there have been times since the Israeli bombing began last October that many Palestinians have gone days without eating food and have resorted to wild herbs or animal feed to fill their stomachs.
The UN has been warning for weeks that all Gazans are hungry, that famine, the most catastrophic level of food insecurity, is imminent in northern Gaza and that nutritional deficiencies, after months of eating little and poorly, are evident in the entire population. How to begin to turn around the tragedy without a ceasefire in sight?
“Our idea is to feed the animals so that people can eat properly again. That is why we are committed to protecting the surviving livestock by introducing fodder into Gaza, specifically barley, to resume a minimum local production of fresh and nutritious foods such as milk and meat,” Abdulhakim Elwaer, deputy director general of the Organization, explains to this newspaper from Cairo. of the United Nations for Food and Agriculture (FAO) and representative of the entity for the Middle East and North Africa.
For the first time since the war began in October, the first 150 tons of fodder entered Gaza this month and are already benefiting more than 1,600 families in the Rafah area in the south. The FAO, which has had the financial support of Belgium, Italy and Norway for this operation, hopes to be able to introduce a total of 1,500 tons soon. This amount would be enough to feed livestock and supply milk for about 50 days to all children under 10 years of age in Gaza, that is, to provide them with 20% of the minimum daily calories recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). ).
We are committed to protecting surviving livestock by introducing fodder into Gaza, specifically barley, to resume minimal local production of fresh and nutritious foods such as milk and meat.
Abdulhakim Elwaer, FAO
For distribution, FAO has worked with trusted local NGOs that know the terrain better and have more staff. “The important thing now is that the process is not interrupted, that families continue receiving this fodder. For now and for security reasons we will not be able to go further north,” explains Elwaer, who states that the final objective is to bring 5,000 tons of barley to the Strip in the coming months.
Gaza was practically self-sufficient in eggs, milk, meat, fish, vegetables and fruits until October 7. That day, militants from Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group that has ruled de facto in the Strip since 2007, infiltrated Israel, killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, according to official figures. Israel launched a military offensive that has caused more than 34,000 deaths in Gaza, the destruction of a large part of the homes and infrastructure and the displacement of 1.7 million Gazans, out of a total population of 2.2 million, according to the Ministry of Palestinian healthcare.
“People in Gaza are practically committing suicide by running towards food being dropped from airplanes. They may be shot or fatally injured due to the impact of the thrown packages. We are all seeing those images. But they need to bring some food home, something that is edible. It doesn’t matter if it is food for animals or for human beings. The important thing is that it fills their stomach. “It’s a disgrace,” Elwaer explains sadly.
A path of obstacles
At this moment, 45% of small ruminants are still alive in the Strip, which corresponds to about 30,000 heads, estimates the FAO. “But there is nothing to feed them and many donkeys and cows have died of hunger,” says Zaqut.
“We have been asked if feeding animals is more important than feeding people. It’s not that. The FAO believes that sending fodder is fighting against people’s hunger and malnutrition. We thought that barley would be easier to introduce into Gaza than fertilizers or vaccines for animals, due to Israeli security controls,” Elwaer adds. Even so, it has taken weeks to obtain the necessary permits for trucks with fodder to enter the Strip. The shipments waited for days in the rain at the gates of Gaza, they had to return to Cairo and the grain had to be fumigated before being transported again.
Elwaer admits that there is a risk that this barley, due to general hunger, will end up serving as food for people. “People are desperate and can turn fodder into flour to make bread. It is totally possible and understandable. But it is an image that should be unacceptable to the world, which has set Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 that include everyone having something to eat,” she emphasizes.
People are desperate and can turn the fodder into flour to make bread. It is totally possible and understandable.
Abdulhakim Elwaer, FAO
It is difficult to hold your gaze before the multiple faces of hunger that arrive from Gaza: A group of Palestinians and a donkey eating from the same bucket, blackened bread made with animal feed, dead goats and chickens next to bombed houses, lethargic and weak children Due to the lack of food, young people whose hair falls out and suffer significant diarrhea from eating little and poorly…
In March, the latest Integrated Phase Classification (ICF, in Spanish; IPC, in English), a globally recognized tool for the analysis of food security and nutrition, concluded that 50% of the 2.2 million inhabitants Gaza faces an extreme lack of access to food. The intensity of hunger and the number of people affected in a short period of time, added to the impossibility of receiving the necessary humanitarian aid, make Gaza a unique case.
Furthermore, the CIF report recalled that Gazans not only need to consume a certain amount of calories per day, but they also have to worry about the type of food they eat. “Our priority is to avoid famine and to do so it is not enough to eat bread. You have to eat vegetables, proteins and milk,” Elwaer insists.
“But there are very few vegetables on the market and almost no one can afford them. Today, for example, a kilo of onions cost 20 shekels (about five euros), although it once cost 70 (17 euros). So people eat canned food day after day. Most of them come from Egypt and they are really very bad. This can no longer be called life, it is something else,” Zaqut laments.
wild herbs
In some cases, families also turn to wild herbs to deceive hunger. “We are cooking a plant called khobiza for the first time in life. It’s not that it’s bad, but in our family it was always seen as delicious food for livestock,” Talal Abu Ahmed, a university professor from Gaza, explains to this newspaper. This species of spinach grows with the rains in winter and is cooked sautéed with olive oil, salt and lemon or boiled to make soup.
“It is difficult to understand from the European mentality that someone has nothing. Absolutely nothing to eat and no one to help him because everyone is the same. In Gaza many people were already poor before October 7. Those people are the ones who are now dying of hunger,” insists Imán Um Nasser, a nurse who has taken refuge in Rafah with her husband and her four children.
People eat canned food day after day. Most of them come from Egypt and they are really very bad. This can no longer be called life, it is something else.
Samir Zaqut, Al Mezan
At the beginning of April, Israel committed, under pressure from the United States, to open the Erez crossing, in the north of the Strip, so that humanitarian aid can reach that area especially in need of food, and to allow the disembarkation of supplies. in the port of Ashdod, but, according to UN sources, these measures have not been implemented.
“Our plan is to reach everyone in Gaza, but that is not possible right now. We want to send people to the field, reactivate fish production and bring in seeds and vaccines for animals in order to avoid diseases, especially those that can be transmitted to humans. All of this can only be done if there is an immediate ceasefire. Without that, no effort can be sustained,” Elwaer insists.

Zaqut admits that in the last two or three weeks more flour has entered Gaza and even some bakeries have reopened with the support of international organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP). “But there is no gas for cooking and what there is is very expensive. So people make fires and continue eating preserves,” explains this humanitarian worker.
Other pressing problems are access to clean water and garbage management. At the time of this interview, last Wednesday, Zaqut has not received water in his precarious house for 15 days. He has to buy it or walk several kilometers to fill a drum. The person in charge of Al Mezan also sends photos of the enormous mountains of garbage that are piled up in the streets. “This disaster is lasting too long and no one is able to stop it.”
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