DEIR AL-BALAH — Kekurangan tepung dan penutupan kedai roti utama di tengah Gaza memburukkan lagi keadaan kemanusiaan yang sudah teruk, ketika keluarga Palestin bergelut untuk mendapatkan makanan yang mencukupi.
Orang ramai menunggu dengan sedih dalam kesejukan di luar Kedai Roti Zadna yang tertutup di Deir Al-Balah pada Isnin.
Antaranya ialah Umm Shadi, seorang wanita pelarian dari Kota Gaza, yang memberitahu The Associated Press (AP), tiada roti yang tinggal kerana kekurangan tepung – satu beg yang berharga sehingga 400 shekel ($107) di pasaran, katanya, jika ada boleh didapati.
“Siapakah yang boleh membeli sebungkus tepung dengan harga 400 shekel?” dia bertanya.
Nora Muhanna, seorang lagi wanita kehilangan tempat tinggal dari Kota Gaza, berkata dia pergi dengan tangan kosong selepas menunggu lima atau enam jam untuk satu beg roti untuk anak-anaknya.
“Dari awal, tidak ada barang, dan jika ada, tidak ada wang,” katanya.
Hampir semua kira-kira 2.3 juta penduduk Gaza kini bergantung kepada bantuan antarabangsa untuk kelangsungan hidup, dan doktor serta kumpulan bantuan mengatakan kekurangan zat makanan berleluasa.
Pakar keselamatan makanan berkata kebuluran mungkin sudah berlaku di utara Gaza yang dilanda teruk.
Kumpulan bantuan menuduh tentera Israel menghalang malah menyekat penghantaran di Gaza.
Sementara itu, berpuluh-puluh orang beratur di Deir Al-Balah untuk mendapatkan bahagian sup lentil dan sedikit roti di dapur amal sementara.
Refat Abed, seorang pelarian dari Kota Gaza, tidak lagi tahu bagaimana dia mampu membeli makanan.
“Di mana saya boleh mendapatkan wang?” dia bertanya.
“Adakah saya merayu? Jika bukan kerana Allah dan sedekah, saya dan anak-anak saya akan kelaparan.”
AN-AP
Food shortages bring hunger pains to displaced families in central Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH — A shortage in flour and the closure of a main bakery in central Gaza have exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation, as Palestinian families struggle to obtain enough food.
A crowd of people waited dejectedly in the cold outside the shuttered Zadna Bakery in Deir Al-Balah on Monday.
Among them was Umm Shadi, a displaced woman from Gaza City, who told The Associated Press that there was no bread left due to the lack of flour — a bag of which costs as much as 400 shekels ($107) in the market, she said, if any can be found.
“Who can buy a bag of flour for 400 shekels?” she asked.
Nora Muhanna, another woman displaced from Gaza City, said she was leaving empty-handed after waiting five or six hours for a bag of bread for her kids.
“From the beginning, there are no goods, and even if they are available, there is no money,” she said.
Almost all of Gaza’s roughly 2.3 million people now rely on international aid for survival, and doctors and aid groups say malnutrition is rampant.
Food security experts say famine may already be underway in hard-hit north Gaza.
Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza.
Meanwhile, dozens lined up in Deir Al-Balah to get their share of lentil soup and some bread at a makeshift charity kitchen.
Refat Abed, a displaced man from Gaza City, no longer knows how he can afford food.
“Where can I get money?” he asked.
“Do I beg? If it were not for God and charity, my children and I would go hungry.”
AN-AP