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Gaza has "less than a week" of food left now that Israel controls Rafah border crossing

By ethanh // 2024-05-20

The Gaza Strip is just days away from mass starvation now that Israel is in control of the Rafah crossing that borders Gaza and Egypt. According to reports, just six aid trucks have entered Gaza in the last week, this being a mere fraction of the normal amount that bring in food, water, medicine and other supplies for the roughly 1.4 million people, many of them refugees, who are hunkered down in the Palestinian territory's southernmost city. Unless more aid trucks are able to get into Gaza somehow, the bodies of these 1.4 million souls will starve to death. The Israeli military took "operational control" of the Rafah border crossing on May 6 in order to further isolate the people of Gaza from the outside world, which includes all of the people who support their lives but who are running out of ideas about how to help them. The formerly closed Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing is now open instead, this being the last remaining route in and out of Gaza through which necessities are making it into the Palestinian territory. If Kerem Shalom ends up being closed back down again, then everyone in Gaza will be left to starve. (Related: The GOP here in the states is going nuts trying to silence the Gaza solidarity protesters by calling them terrorists and begging the IRS to go after their finances.)

Pray for the people of Gaza

According to Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for the United Nations' (UN) Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), the "very minimum" number of aid trucks that should be entering Gaza every day is 500. And all of them need to be carrying some "combination of fuel, aid supplies and commercial supplies" in order to keep the people of Gaza alive. On top of that, Gaza needs fuel at a rate of about 300,000 liters per day, but is currently only receiving around 157,000 liters per day which is not enough to keep the enclave viable for the people who live in it. As you might expect, this immense shortage has created a cost-of-living crisis whereby food and other supplies are prohibitively expensive for the average Palestinian person, which in turn is leading to a "full-blown famine" across the land. In a matter of days, a "real crisis" could unfold in Gaza that will make it absolutely "miserable" for all remaining souls there to survive. Since October 7, it is estimated that around 450,000 people fled to Rafah from other parts of Gaza, this on top of the roughly one million people who already lived in Rafah previously. "We could be seeing a new famine in the displacement areas," commented Mohammed al-Hajjar, a Palestinian journalist in Deir al-Balah. "Displaced people are very worried about the lack of supplies. A major crisis, too, is related to the lack of water fit for drinking." According to al-Hajjar, there is no longer any bottled water entering Gaza, nor are there any remaining water sources that are actively producing drinking water for residents inside the territory. Local markets across Rafah are said to have bare shelves with fresh foods like potatoes and other vegetables having been unavailable for at least the past week. "A few vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and garlic and a few legumes such as lentils beans, and fava beans, are all that's left," added Eman Mhmd, a mathematics teacher in Deir al-Balah. "There's no chickens, no eggs, no tissues – many other things have gone." "The sudden presence of thousands of displaced people has created a state of chaos in the markets of Deir al-Balah." The latest news about the Middle East can be found at Prophecy.news. Sources for this article include: MiddleEastEye.net NaturalNews.com

food hunger Israel starvation food supply famine genocide chaos WWIII humanitarian aid overpopulation supply chain Gaza Rafah