Hunger, thirst worsen plight of displaced Gazans amid Israeli attacks

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Fleeing Israeli attacks in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian mother Hind Salem and her children are now taking the sidewalk as their home amid cold weather.

“We are now sleeping on the street,” Salem, 31, told Anadolu on Thursday.

“There is no water, food, or any necessities for life. My children are hungry, and I can’t find water for them,” she said.

Salem and her children had fled their home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip amid Israeli attacks since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

After residing at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza for some time, the family had to move again to “safe zones” classified by Israel in Rafah city in Gaza’s south.

The family joined hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had fled to Gaza’s south to escape the Israeli assault amid a shortage of food, water and medicines.

“Where we are supposed to go,” wondered Salem.

“I’m the sole caretaker of my children today as my husband is not with me,” she said, without specifying her husband’s fate.

The Palestinian mother recalled the family’s harsh journey from Gaza’s north to south under relentless Israeli attacks and without enough food.

“We fled the Israeli airstrikes and resigned ourselves to misery, thirst, and hunger,” Salem said.

“We have almost tested every hardship in this life,” the poor woman added.

Salem said she does not find medical care for her sick young child as most hospitals are overwhelmed by the war casualties.

"My daughter is dying in my arms. Where I’m supposed to go?" she lamented.

The Palestinian mother appealed to the United Nations and the UN refugee agency UNRWA “to find shelter for displaced Palestinians who have fled their homes to escape war and death.”

UNRWA Director in Gaza Thomas White said Thursday that the Palestinian territory is grappling with catastrophic hunger amid ongoing Israeli attacks.

"Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and finding water,” White said, warning that “40% of the population are now at risk of famine.”

At least 21,320 Palestinians have since been killed and 55,603 others injured in Israeli air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, according to local health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave's infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul