Residents of the Gaza Strip have told the BBC how severe hunger is affecting their bodies, after a UN-backed report confirmed for the first time that some areas of the territory are facing a bread crisis.
“The declaration of the hunger crisis came too late, but it is still important. We haven’t eaten any protein-based food for five months. My youngest child is four years old; he doesn’t know what fruits or vegetables are, or what they taste like,” said Reem Tawfiq Khader, 41, a mother of five from Gaza City.
Rajaa Talbeh, 47, a mother of six, said she has lost 25 kilograms. She left her home in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza a month ago and now lives in an improvised tent near the sea.
She suffers from gluten intolerance and said she can no longer find food she can eat.
“Before the war, an organization helped me get gluten-free products that I couldn’t buy myself. Since the war started, I can’t find those foods in the market, and when I do, I don’t have money to buy them. Isn’t it enough that every day we face bombings, displacement, and living in a tent that protects us neither from heat nor cold, and now also from hunger?” she said.
Rida Hijeh, 29, said her five-year-old daughter, Lamia, has dropped from 19 kg to just 10.5 kg. She added that her daughter was completely healthy before the war and had no previous illnesses.
“This happened only because of hunger,” she said. “The child has nothing to eat. No vegetables, no fruits.”
Now, the girl suffers from swollen legs, hair loss, and nervous system problems.
“She cannot walk. I have been to many clinics and hospitals. Everyone told me that my daughter suffers from malnutrition. But no one helped me, neither with treatment nor any support,” Hijeh added.
“Five months ago, I weighed 56 kg. Today, I weigh only 46 kg,” said another woman from Gaza, Aseeli. She said she has not eaten any fruit or meat for months and has spent almost all her savings to buy basic food to survive.
Her husband’s sister, with whom she lives, has a one-month-old baby.
“She is desperately looking for baby formula at a reasonable price,” Aseeli said. “I don’t have any food reserves, not even for a week. Like many others, we live day by day.”
Mandy Blackman, a British nurse working with UK-Med in Gaza, said that 70% of mothers who visit their clinics for prenatal and postnatal check-ups are malnourished. “As a result, babies are born smaller and weaker,” she said.
More than 62,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military campaign following the Hamas attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and left 251 others taken hostage.
Since the start of the war, at least 271 people, including 112 children, have died from hunger and malnutrition, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, run by Hamas.
