Knives, bullets and thieves: the quest for food in Gaza
Editor’s note: Anas Baba is NPR’s producer in the Gaza Strip. His report is a rare account by a journalist inside a new food distribution site that the United States and Israel helped establish in the Palestinian territory. Some of the images in this story are graphic.
NEAR THE NETZARIM CORRIDOR, Gaza Strip — What does it take to get food today in Gaza? It involves a perilous journey that I took myself.
I faced Israeli military fire, private U.S. contractors pointing laser beams at my forehead, crowds with knives fighting for rations, and masked thieves — to get food from a group supported by the U.S. and Israel called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF.
Every day since the group began offering food on May 26, thousands of hungry Palestinians seeking food at these sites have been wounded and hundreds have been killed by Israeli military fire, according to Gaza health officials and international medical teams in Gaza. Many others have returned empty-handed after crowds grabbed all the food.
This is the story of what I witnessed from inside what GHF calls a “Secure Distribution Site.”
The United Nations calls the food program a “death trap.”
Why I took the risk to get food from the distribution site
I have lost a third of my body weight after nearly 21 months of war in Gaza.
Months of an Israeli ban on food entering Gaza, and the current strict controls on food distribution, have fueled widespread hunger. Gaza health officials have reported scores of children who died of malnutrition.
People are pale and weak. They walk on the street supporting themselves by grabbing onto walls and fences, or they walk together in groups to support each other. Women and children faint in the street.
In recent months, I have eaten one small meal a day, rationing my own stock. Three weeks ago, I ran out of the basics — flour, lentils, cooking oil.
Street vendors sell items with skyrocketing prices I can no longer afford. Two pounds of potatoes cost around $100. I began buying watermelon peels and spoiled potatoes to pickle them.
So we had only one choice: going to get food from GHF. But since day one, we have witnessed one thing that made all of us terrified: that every single day people are getting killed when they go to pick up food from GHF sites.
But hunger is a little bit of an addiction. Once it’s controlling your own mind, you cannot think straight. Once you feel that your stomach, your brain, your body, are craving something, you will not be afraid of anything. You will do anything to get food.
That’s why on Monday evening, June 23, my cousin and I left Gaza City and walked south along the coast for hours to risk trying to get food at a GHF site in central Gaza.
Packing empty sacks and knives for the journey
We packed a small backpack with water, bandages and a first aid kit. Others tuck an empty sack under their pants’ belt on one hip, and on the other, a knife, to protect themselves from looters and bandits, as hunger spreads lawlessness throughout Gaza.
Around midnight, large crowds began to gather along a wide road leading to the food site, waiting for some kind of sign that it is open. To reach the food site from that road, you have to pass through a military area near the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli military zone that during most times is a no-go zone for Palestinians. Crossing through the military zone before the food site is open draws Israeli military fire.
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GHF doesn’t have fixed opening hours. It opens and closes the site often within minutes. Those who get there first get to grab the most food before it quickly runs out. Many edge to the front of the crowd before the site opens, despite the risk of Israeli soldiers perceiving them as a threat.
At 1:30 a.m. on June 24, a car raced down the road with food tied to its roof. The passengers yelled: GHF is open!
Crowds began running down the road toward the site, as cars and motorcycles raced each other. I saw people get crushed underneath cars.
The crowd dodged bullets
When we reached closer to the site, we were surprised to find an Israeli tank. It had not yet withdrawn. The crowd was wrong: the food site was not yet open.
Every single person started to retreat and run. The tank immediately opened fire. My cousin and I threw ourselves to the ground. I heard the gunshots and people screaming that were injured. Others cried out: “My brother died,” “my friend died.”
By now it was 1:48 a.m. Gunfire continued. It was pitch black. And the crowds were still waiting.
At 2 a.m. the gunfire stopped. We took it as a sign that the site had opened. I ran with the crowds toward the food distribution site, stepping over bodies.
In a statement, the Israeli military said people had gathered adjacent to Israeli IDF troops. “Reports of injured individuals as a result of IDF fire in the area were received. The details are under review,” it said.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted anonymous soldiers who said they were ordered to deliberately open fire at unarmed crowds on their way to the food sites. Israeli leaders denied the allegations, which NPR has not been able to independently confirm.
A mother guards her food with a knife in each hand
The food site was finally open.
I watched hundreds of people tear down a fence surrounding the site, trampling over it to reach boxes of food sitting on wooden pallets. I grabbed my cellphone and started to document the scene.
Thousands of people — a human blender — were swirling around the food boxes, fighting each other to take as much food as possible.
A woman in her 40s, sweaty and with an angry face, held a knife in each hand, with her young son by her side. She was screaming at everyone: do not touch my son or the food.
Law and order had totally vanished. It was the law of the jungle.
Getting food in Gaza didn’t used to be a free-for-all
For most of the war, hundreds of aid distribution centers across Gaza would provide flour and basics. U.N. agencies would send a text message when it was your turn to pick up food, you waited hours in line, and everyone received their share.
Israel and the U.S. accused Hamas of diverting that aid, so they set up the GHF, saying it would keep Hamas away. But at the GHF site, I saw people I am certain were Hamas members, based on their dress, taking food for their families.
As I was filming, people came to me and said: look at your forehead. There were three green laser dots on my head: private armed U.S. contractors who were guarding the site were pointing their weapons at my head. One spoke through a loudspeaker, in English: “No filming allowed.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation defended its activities
In a detailed email, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation responded to this reporting.
It said it understood concerns that the unpredictable opening times of its food sites could expose Palestinians to Israeli gunfire while approaching the sites.
But GHF asserted that it was seeking to prevent crowd surges. The group said it had urged the Israeli military to do more to ensure safe access, and the military said it has opened new roads and created new signage.
GHF said it is impossible to screen for individuals affiliated with Hamas, but said it was preventing Hamas from controlling the flow of aid. It said it prohibits Palestinians from filming U.S. contractors at the site because they have faced online threats.
GHF went on to say that Hamas militants have killed and threatened Palestinians working with the group. Hamas militants have also killed and wounded Palestinians en route to get food at their sites, GHF said in the email to NPR.
GHF says two private U.S. contractors working at another one of its food distribution sites were injured Saturday when two people threw grenades at them.
A group of 170 human rights and aid organizations called for this food distribution system to end.
Masked thieves stole food
At the distribution site, I pushed people aside and grabbed whatever food I found tossed on the ground under torn cardboard boxes: cooking oil, biscuits, a bag of rice that had been torn open and was mixed with sand from the ground. I didn’t care. It’s food. I can wash it.
My cousin got trampled on the ground by the crowds. I helped pull him up. But the real deal is getting out of the site, protecting your bags of food while pushing past a wall of thousands of people streaming in.
Leaving the site, we were walking in the street when we were stopped by four masked thieves holding big knives. They told us we had two options: give them half of our loot, or we would be harmed.
I offered to give them one item, but not half of what we had. One started to swing his knife. My cousin and I looked at each other, and then threw two bags of food at the thieves and ran away.
We brought back food for our relatives. I was left with about a week and a half of food for myself — eating one meal a day.
Bodies shrouded in empty food bags
At 4:30 that morning, I went to the hospital to a scene of screaming and blood.
Hospital officials said more than 200 people had been wounded and 26 killed outside the same food site I had visited that very day.
Others have been killed at GHF’s three other sites in Gaza — the only major food distribution sites in Gaza today for a population of around 2.1 million people.
Starving families who sent their loved ones to collect some food for them were now at the hospital with their wounded loved ones seeking treatment.
With two bullets in the thighs, and another bullet in his arm, one young man was screaming in pain.
A mother was grieving over her son, the only provider for his family, who had succeeded in snatching food from the GHF site once before — but now had returned as a dead body.
The hospital had run out of white shrouds to cover the deceased. The dead bodies lying on the hospital floor were covered by the same empty sacks — once filled with flour given out as international aid — that they had taken with them, in the hopes of filling them up with food.
Despite the daily killing and horrors for Palestinians seeking food from those sites, many still gamble with their lives to collect some food to bring back to their families — who wait for them, hungry, hoping they will return.
NPR’s Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
Transcript:
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
What does it take to get food today in Gaza? It involves a perilous journey that NPR’s producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, experienced himself last week. Hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli troops as they approach these food sites, according to health officials and international medical teams in Gaza. U.S. officials have accused American media of spreading Hamas misinformation. The account that you are about to hear is rare reporting by a journalist from inside a new food distribution site that the U.S. and Israel set up in Gaza, sites which the United Nations calls death traps. Before we start, a warning. In this story, you will hear the sounds of gunfire and descriptions of violence. Here’s NPR’s Daniel Estrin.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Strict Israeli controls on food entering Gaza have driven widespread hunger. Our colleague Anas Baba has lost a third of his body weight during the war. He’s been eating one small meal a day, rationing his food supplies until they ran out three weeks ago.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: I cannot find the basics – just, like, flour, cooking oil, lentils.
ESTRIN: Israel bans international journalists from independent access to Gaza. Baba is from Gaza and has been reporting for NPR throughout 20 months of war – reporting on the war and living through it, experiencing hunger and observing what it does to a person’s body.
BABA: Women faint in the street. Shildren faint in the street. Hunger is a little bit of an addiction. Once you feel that your stomach, your brain, your body is craving something, you will not be afraid of anything, and you can do anything to bring food for your children and for yourself.
ESTRIN: Last Monday evening, he and his cousin walked for hours to get food at a new distribution site run by private American contractors with a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF.
BABA: It’s truly a day in my life that I will never, ever forget. We packed a small, like, backpack – water, bandages, first aid kit.
ESTRIN: Others tuck a large empty sack under their belt on one hip, and on the other…
BABA: And the other side is a knife to protect themselves from the looters and the bandits.
ESTRIN: Around midnight, Baba joined large crowds waiting to approach the food site. GHF has changing hours and opens and closes the site at very short notice, they say to prevent crowd surges. But to get there, you have to pass through an Israeli military zone. Baba says some edge close to get to the front of the crowd before the site opens despite the risk of Israeli soldiers perceiving them as a threat.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD BUSTLING)
BABA: This is the moment where everyone here says that the GHF site is open. And now it’s 1:30 after midnight.
So all of the cars turns on the engine, and they started to race each other, motorcycles. And between them, there is people running between the cars. I saw some people there being crushed. I saw some people that they were literally underneath the cars.
ESTRIN: He ran with the crowd, but when they got close to the site, they were shocked to find an Israeli tank. The crowd was wrong. The food site was not yet open.
BABA: Every single person started to retreat and run, and the tank did not even waited a second.
ESTRIN: Baba recorded the gunfire from a distance.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
ESTRIN: He and his cousin threw themselves to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Shouting in non-English language).
BABA: And I heard the gunshots and the people screaming that they are injured. And other, they saying that my brother died, my friend died.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
BABA: It’s still, at the meantime, 1:48.
And the gunfire didn’t stop. And I can see in front of me that people are still waiting. They’re not leaving.
ESTRIN: The Israeli military told NPR people gathered near the site and adjacent to Israeli IDF troops. Quote, “reports of injured individuals as a result of IDF fire in the area were received. The details are under review.”
BABA: At 2 a.m. the gunfire just stopped, and we told ourselves maybe this is a sign from them. We were going to go for another run. I stepped on bodies, and I didn’t stop.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD BUSTLING)
BABA: This is another run.
ESTRIN: This time, the GHF site was open. Baba watched large crowds tear down a fence to reach boxes of food sitting on wooden pallets.
BABA: I grabbed my cellphone and started to record what I’m seeing in front of me.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENGINE IDLING)
BABA: And people enter, fighting each other to take as much as possible.
A woman in her 40s with her son, and that woman, sweaty, with an angry face, she was holding two knives in her own hands, and she was screaming at everyone, do not even touch my son or the food.
ESTRIN: It didn’t used to be this kind of free-for-all. For most of the war, there were hundreds of aid distribution centers across Gaza. U.N. agencies would send a text message when it was your turn to pick up food, and everyone got some. Israel and the U.S. accused Hamas of diverting that aid, so they set up the GHF to keep Hamas away. But at the GHF site, Baba saw people he believes were Hamas members, based on their looks, taking food for their families. GHF told NPR it’s impossible to screen for individuals affiliated with Hamas, but said it was preventing Hamas from controlling the flow of aid. GHF also said it forbids Palestinians from filming U.S. contractors at the site.
BABA: People came to me telling me, look at your forehead. There is three green laser points on my head from the American contractors, and one of them say that out loud with a speaker, no filming is allowed.
ESTRIN: Asked about this reporting, GHF acknowledged the concern that the changing hours could expose people to potential Israeli military fire. The military says it’s opened new roads and created new signage. GHF says Hamas has wounded and killed people en route to their sites and has killed and threatened Palestinians working with them. One hundred and seventy rights groups and aid groups have called for the GHF system to be dismantled. At the distribution site, Baba grabbed whatever food he could find tossed on the ground.
BABA: I pulled 5 kilograms of rice. It was open with some sand in it, but I didn’t care. It’s food. I can wash it.
ESTRIN: His cousin got trampled on the ground by the crowds, and he helped pull him up. Then they fought upstream through a river of people trying to leave with their bags of food. Walking back, they were stopped by four masked thieves.
BABA: They were having big knives, and they told us, you do have two options. Give us half of what you had – OK? – or we’re going to harm you.
ESTRIN: When the thieves refused to negotiate, Baba and his cousin threw two bags of food at the thieves and ran away with enough food to give their relatives. Baba was left with about a week and a half of supplies for himself.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Crying in non-English language).
ESTRIN: Later that morning, Baba went to the hospital. Health officials said more than 200 people were wounded and 26 killed outside the food site.
BABA: There is no white shrouds in the hospitals in the meantime. The dead bodies that lying on the ground were covered by the same sacks that they were taken at to fill it up with food.
ESTRIN: Every day GHF has opened its food distribution sites – including today – Gaza health officials say hungry people seeking food have been killed, and many people return from the sites empty-handed.
Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv, with NPR’s Anas Baba in Gaza City.
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