The race against time to tackle the ‘war against hunger’ in Gaza

Listening to her baby’s strangulated wail as he cries out for food, a mother picks up a nearby empty pot. 

‘Soon’, she soothes, pretending to stir the non-existent meal in a bid to calm her child. ‘Food will be ready soon.’ 

However, living in war torn Gaza, the woman knows all too well there is no food to give her starving baby – and she doesn’t know when there will be. 

It’s a familiar scene for many Palestinians existing under relentless attacks, who are fearful they may die of hunger. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) an unprecedented 93% of the population is facing crisis levels of hunger, with insufficient food and high levels of malnutrition.

Food and water are in short supply, shelters are at breaking point and, without fuel, there is no electricity.

‘There’s a violent war, people know that. But there’s now a war on hunger, that’s what the world hasn’t realised.’ charity worker Yusuf Kalam tells Metro.co.uk.

Recently stationed on the Rafah Border in Egypt, in the south of Gaza, he witnessed overwhelmed security checkpoints and truckloads of aid held up for anywhere between 10 and 12 hours. 

Yusuf, philanthropy and partnerships manager at Muslim Aid, adds: ‘People in Gaza don’t know whether to stay and wait for aid or move on and put themselves in danger.

‘People are congregating on the roads, in churches, in schools – there’s simply not enough shelter left. The fear and panic resembles the apocalypse. 

‘There’s a feeling in Gaza that there isn’t enough aid and that the world has abandoned the people there. But in reality there is aid, it’s just not getting in.

‘The Rafah border isn’t a massive commercial entity, it’s a pedestrian crossing. The infrastructure there isn’t prepared for the amount of trucks and humanitarian aid trying to reach Gaza.’

Since Hamas-led fighters launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Gaza was hit with a ‘complete siege’ with water and electricity soon in short supply.

Elsewhere, videos were shared of food being set on fire, reportedly by Israeli soldiers.

The Human Rights Watch, which conducts research and advocacy on human rights, say starvation is now being used against Gazans as a weapon of war.

‘Children are going to sleep hungry,’ says Yusuf. ‘I was told about that mother with the empty pot. She kept churning it until her starving baby fell asleep. asleep. 

‘There are other stories I’ve heard that are too harrowing to share. Some people returned to the Rafah crossing feeling sick to their stomach at what they had seen.People don’t know whether to stay put and wait for aid or risk their lives, or their families lives, walking to a border.

‘I met one woman whose daughter was still in Gaza. The mother had evacuated as she had a foreign passport, but her daughter did not. She doesn’t know how to get in contact with her as connection issues have left people in limbo.

‘You might find 500 people sheltering in a school which was made to only hold 100. Diseases are spreading. With less food, people’s immune systems are weaker.

‘I’ve heard of the people defecating in the street as there’s nowhere else to go. People are congregating on the streets.’

When Yusuf, 33, returned home to London after several days co-ordinating aid from the border, he struggled with sleepless nights. His young daughter woke up one night and he held her closely in the darkness.

‘I suddenly had vivid images of the scenes in Gaza,’ he recalls. ‘There I was trying to put my crying daughter to sleep in a quiet room, but I was thinking of the screams, shouts, bombs and commotion that parents in Gaza deal with daily. I’m traumatised. 

‘I’ve never seen anything like the situation in Gaza in my decade of working in the humanitarian sector. ’

Often in his work, Yusuf is forced to ‘switch off’ as he responds to disaster after disaster.

Earlier this year, he travelled to the city of Gaziantep, two days after devastating earthquakes hit southern Turkey and northern Syria. There, he described the scene as ‘doomsday’. But, he says, in Gaza, the situation felt different. The disaster has been caused by mankind rather than mother nature.

‘In Turkey there wasn’t this same sense of complete hopelessness or utter abandonment,’ he explains. ‘What I’m witnessing now is the worst of humanity. I’ve never seen something so desperate. The violence is still escalating and the sheer amount of death continues to shock us.

‘These are real people in danger. They breathe the same air as you and I, their bodies are made up the same way.’

With colleagues at Muslim Aid and donations from the public, Yusuf was able to source food parcels, water and ambulances to take into Gaza.

British Aid workers kitted out vans with life-saving medicine equipment and space for a stretcher. Each was adorned with clear writing to state ‘ambulance’, so they wouldn’t be caught up in any fighting.

While stories of human suffering left a lasting impact, Yusuf also heard examples of human kindness during his time in Egypt. He was told about doctors who used flashlights on their phones to carry out life-saving operations, aid workers who worked through the day and night and donors who had given all they could to end the suffering.

Last month, Muslim Aid received a one-off donation of £20,000 from a man in the UK who had emptied his account in a bid to help.

‘Among the darkness, where there is seemingly no hope, you can see a beam of light. That light is us – as human beings – supporting each other. It is easy to get disheartened by the situation or the politics, but if you focus on these positive stories then you can have hope.’

Humanitarian pauses have allowed aid to get into Gaza, but fighting has continued since a weeklong cease-fire ended on December 1, 2023.

Muslim Aid, along with the likes of Oxfam and Amnesty International, have called for a ceasefire to end the suffering. Aid workers also hope more humanitarian channels can be explored in the race against time to feed Gaza’s starving population. 

‘A whole city has been completely destroyed. There will be questions soon on what comes next for Gaza. How can we rebuild and rehome these people? What will that look like? When will that be?’ asks Yusuf.

‘But for now, our first priority is to keep people alive until those questions are answered. We’ve see the death toll reach 20,000.

‘When do we say enough is enough?’

Launched in 1985, in response to the 1983 famine in Ethiopia, Muslim Aid has worked in the Gaza region for nearly 17 years to provide support. You can help the organisation by clicking here.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Kirsten.Robertson@metro.co.uk 

Share your views in the comments below.