Palestinian children protest scarcity of food in Gaza City

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Dozens of Palestinian children in Gaza City in the northern part of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday rallied to protest the scarcity of food and water under the Israeli siege.

The children marched in the streets of Gaza City holding banners reading “bread becomes my dream” and “we want food”.

Holding empty pots during the rally as an expression of lack of food, they chanted their demand for a decent life.

“We die from hunger, we have nothing to eat, we are forced to eat animal food,” 10-year-old Ayat Ashour told Anadolu.

“Food has become unaffordable, we want to live, we want (food) aid. … The people in the northern Gaza Strip find nothing to eat, there is no milk for children,” she added.

Another child, Omar Al-Shenbari, 14, said: “We are marching to raise our voice to the world that we want flour to eat, there is no food or water (in Gaza City).”

“We eat one insufficient meal a day, mainly consists of water and (tomato) paste,” Omar also said. “We are experiencing difficult situations. The Arab countries and the entire world must stand with us.”

On Tuesday, the UN’s World Food Program announced that it had halted food distribution in northern Gaza until safety conditions improved.

According to several UN agencies, malnutrition has reached unprecedented levels among Palestinian children aged 4-6.

Overall, acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip reached 16.2%, a rate that exceeds the critical threshold set by the World Health Organization at 15%.

Despite orders by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where over 29,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 69,000 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed 1,160 people.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.