Hungry
Gazans Left Waiting Despite Ease on Israeli Blockade
For many,
the hope of food arriving has become like the endless reports of an imminent
cease-fire: constantly trumpeted as just around the corner yet still out of
reach.
By Aaron
Boxerman Bilal Shbair and
Iyad Abuheweila
May 21,
2025, 6:12 a.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-blockade-aid.html
Three days
after Israel announced that it would ease its blockade of humanitarian aid to
Gaza, it appeared on Wednesday that little, if any, of the desperately needed
food, fuel and medicine had actually reached hungry Palestinians.
Dozens of
trucks ferrying supplies have crossed into Gaza at the Israeli-controlled
border crossing of Kerem Shalom, according to Israel. But the United Nations
has so far been unable to move any trucks from Kerem Shalom to warehouses
inside Gaza, in part because of fears of looting, according to a U.N. official,
who requested anonymity to share sensitive details.
Palestinians
reeling from Israel’s two-month ban on food, fuel and other supplies have been
left waiting. The delays suggested that distributing aid across Gaza was likely
to take time, even as Israel threatens a major ground offensive that could
upend the process.
“Today we
will mostly eat lentils, or pasta,” Riyadh al-Housari, a 25-year-old in Gaza
City, said in a phone interview. “We eat one meal in the late afternoon. It is
one meal and there is no other.”
Israel’s
blockade has rendered the situation so dire that Gazans are at “critical risk
of famine,” a panel of U.N.-backed experts said in May. They projected that
tens of thousands of children could suffer from acute malnutrition if the
restrictions continued. Israel argued the report was based on faulty data and
assumptions.
In early
March, Israel announced it was barring humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
Israeli officials argued that the restrictions aimed to pressure Hamas to agree
terms for ending the war and freeing the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
The impact
on ordinary Gazans was immense: Aid organizations suspended their operations as
food stockpiles dwindled, and the price of food skyrocketed. By May, relief
officials were warning that widespread hunger had become a daily reality.
For weeks,
Israel refused to allow aid agencies to resume operations unless they agreed to
new Israeli conditions, purportedly to prevent supplies from falling into
Hamas’s hands. Israeli leaders publicly insisted that Gaza still had plentiful
stockpiles of food, even as some military officials privately concluded that
Palestinians there could face starvation within weeks.
Even the
United States — one of Israel’s most stalwart supporters throughout the
conflict — began suggesting that the humanitarian crisis was spiraling out of
control. Last week, President Trump said that “a lot of people are starving” in
the Gaza Strip and that the United States was working to alleviate the
situation.
The Israeli
authorities relented on Sunday night, announcing that they would begin allowing
in small amounts of food.
Without any
new aid having actually arrived, many in Gaza are trying to make whatever
provisions they have last as long as possible. “We don’t plan meals anymore. We
just work with whatever we can find,” said Sabah ِAbu al-Roos, 63, in the central city
of Deir al-Balah.
Produce like
eggplants and tomatoes are often hawked at eye-watering prices, according to
several Gazans. Ms. Abu al-Roos said that one vendor in a local street market
had been selling a single onion for $8.50.
Abdelhalim
Awad, who runs a now-shuttered bakery in Deir al-Balah, said the hope of food
arriving had become like the endless reports of an imminent cease-fire:
constantly trumpeted as just around the corner yet still out of reach.
“But even if
we get some flour today, it seems we won’t have anything close to what’s needed
to feed people,” Mr. Awad said.
Aaron
Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in
Jerusalem.
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