There is a severe food shortage in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Abu Jibril, a refugee, was forced to slaughter two of his own horses to feed the family’s children.
There was no way but to slaughter the horses and feed the children, hunger was killing us,
He cooks rice with horse meat and distributes it among his family and neighbors. However, the horse meat that the dish is made of is kept secret from everyone.
Israel launched an indiscriminate attack on Gaza after the Palestinian independence organization Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year. Before that, the largest refugee camp in Gaza was Jabalia.
After the attacks began, 60-year-old Jibril and his family fled nearby Beit Hanun and took refuge in Jabalia. He and his family are living under a tent in a refugee camp.
This refugee camp of only half a square mile was established in 1948. Already there were problems of polluted water, irregular power supply and overcrowding. More than one lakh refugees are currently living here.
Aid agencies have been unable to send humanitarian aid due to Israeli attacks, resulting in a food crisis. The World Food Program recently said famine could soon occur among Gaza’s 2.2 million people.
A two-month-old baby died of malnutrition in a hospital four miles from Jabalia on Friday, Gaza’s health ministry said. In addition, 29 thousand 606 Gazans have been killed in the war since October 7.
Gathering food by begging
At Jabalia camp, a crowd of eager children can be seen holding plastic bowls and cooking utensils. They are lucky to have very little food. Food prices have skyrocketed due to reduced supply.
We are not surviving, but what crime did 4-5 year olds commit that they go to sleep hungry, and wake up hungry? A refugee camp resident asked the question.
On February 19, UNICEF reported that one in six children under the age of two in Gaza is malnourished.
Refugees in Gaza are starving by eating scavenged, rotting corn kernels, animal fodder, and even tree leaves.
No food, no flour, no fresh water, said a woman. We are begging our neighbors. There is not even a penny in the house. We are going door to door, no one is begging us.
Food shortages continue to fuel discontent in Jabaliya. About a hundred people gathered and protested on Friday.
A child’s placard read: We did not die of air raids but of hunger.
