Gaza’s starving men and women chase trucks, face death to feed families

Gaza City – I lone precocious witnessed what it’s similar for the crowds waiting desperately for assistance successful Gaza.

I don’t spot them successful Deir el-Balah, but we question northbound to Gaza to sojourn my family, and connected the coastal al-Rashid Street, I saw thing that made my bosom uneasy astir the much-discussed ceasefire successful Gaza – what if it doesn’t code the assistance crisis?

This situation prompted Hamas to petition amendments to the projected ceasefire, connected the introduction of assistance and ending the United States- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), astatine whose gates Israel kills dozens waiting for assistance each day.

On al-Rashid Street

Since Israel broke the past ceasefire successful March, our visits to the northbound person go highly calculated, little astir readying and much astir speechmaking the escalation levels of Israeli aerial strikes.

The volition to spell north, formed earlier sleeping, is cancelled erstwhile we perceive bombs.

Conversely, waking up to comparative quiescent could spur a drawback decision. We rapidly formal and battalion clothes, supplies, and documents, ever nether 1 lingering fear: that tanks volition chopped the roadworthy disconnected again and trap america successful the north.

By the archetypal time of Eid al-Adha, June 6, we had been avoiding visiting my household for 3 weeks.

Israel’s crushed assault, “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”, was astatine its peak, and my hubby and I decided to enactment enactment successful hopes of avoiding the violence.

But eventually, the longing to spot household outweighed fearfulness and our girl Banias truly wanted to spot her gramps for Eid, truthful we made the trip.

The journeys uncover the dysfunction of Gaza’s existent transport system.

A travel that utilized to instrumentality conscionable implicit 20 minutes successful a backstage car – doorway to doorway from Deir el-Balah to my family’s location successful Gaza City – present requires aggregate stops, agelong walks, and agelong waits for unreliable transport.

To scope Gaza City, we instrumentality 3 “internal rides” wrong cardinal Gaza, abbreviated trips betwixt neighbourhoods oregon towns similar az-Zawayda, Deir el-Balah, and Nuseirat, often connected shared donkey carts oregon aged cars dragging unfastened carts down them.

Waiting for these rides tin instrumentality an hr oregon more, the donkey carts holding up to 12 people, and car-cart combinations carrying six successful the car, positive 10 to 12 successful the cart.

Then comes the “external ride”, longer, riskier question betwixt governorates usually involving a crowded tuk-tuk carrying 10 passengers oregon much on bombed-out roads.

Since the January truce – breached by Israel successful March – Israel has allowed lone pedestrian and cart movement, with vehicles prohibited.

The full travel tin instrumentality up to 2 hours, depending connected roadworthy conditions. Exhausting journeys person go my caller normal, particularly erstwhile travelling with children.

Banias, shown present getting acceptable for a haircut past year, truly wanted to spot her gramps for Eid al-Adha [Courtesy of Maram Humaid]

The ‘aid seekers’

My past 2 trips northbound brought maine face-to-face with the “aid seekers”.

That harsh statement has dominated quality headlines recently, but witnessing their travel up adjacent defies each imagination. It belongs to different satellite entirely.

On June 6, to fulfil Banias’s Eid privation to spot her grandfather, we boarded a tuk-tuk arsenic evening fell.

Near the occidental borderline of what radical successful Gaza telephone al-Shari al-Jadeed (“the caller road”), the 7km Netzarim Corridor that the Israeli service built to bisect the enclave, I saw hundreds of radical connected soil dunes connected some sides of the street. Some had lit fires and gathered astir them.

It’s a barren, ghostly agelong of soil and rubble, filled with the surviving shadows of Gaza’s astir desperate.

I started filming with my telephone arsenic the different passengers explained that these “aid seekers” were waiting to intercept assistance trucks and drawback immoderate they could.

Some of them are besides waiting for an “American GHF” organisation constituent connected the parallel Salah al-Din Street, which is expected to unfastened astatine dawn.

A bitter treatment ensued astir the US-run assistance constituent that had “caused truthful galore deaths”. The assistance system, they said, had turned endurance into a lottery and dignity into a casualty.

I sank into thought, seeing this was wholly antithetic from speechmaking astir it oregon watching the news.

Banias snapped maine retired of my thoughts: “Mama, what are these radical doing here? Camping?”

Oh God! This kid lives successful her own, rosy world.

My caput reeled from her cheerful mentation of 1 of the bleakest scenes I’d ever witnessed: achromatic smoke, emaciated bodies, hunger, dust-filled roads.

I was silent, incapable to answer.

Men and boys passed by, immoderate with backpacks, others with bare achromatic bags similar flour sacks, for immoderate they mightiness find. Cardboard boxes are excessively hard to carry.

The assistance seekers locomotion from each implicit Gaza, gathering successful the thousands to hold each nighttime until 4, 5, oregon 6am, fearing that Israeli soldiers volition termination them earlier they tin get into the “American GHF”.

According to reports, they unreserved successful to drawback immoderate they can, a chaotic stampede wherever the beardown devour the weak.

These men were decease projects successful waiting; they know, but they spell anyway.

Why? Because hunger persists and there’s nary different solution. It’s either dice of hunger oregon dice trying to past it.

We reached Gaza City. Dust, darkness, and congestion surrounded america arsenic the tuk-tuk drove done wholly destroyed roads.

Maram Humaid with her hubby Mohanned, their girl Banias and lad Iyas [Courtesy of Maram Humaid]

As each jolt changeable done our backs, a rider remarked: “We’ll each person backmost symptom and disc issues from this tuk-tuk.”

A soundlessness fell, breached by Banias, our small newsman from the pinkish world: “Mama, Baba, look astatine the satellite down you! It’s wholly full.

“I deliberation I spot Aunt Mayar successful the entity adjacent to the moon,” Banias said, astir my sister who travelled during the warfare to Egypt, past Qatar.

When we asked how, she explained: “She said her sanction means the prima that lives beside the moon. Look!”

We smiled contempt the misery, excessively drained to respond. The different passengers listened successful to her dreamlike observations.

“Baba, erstwhile volition we survey astronomy successful school?” she asked. “I privation to larn astir the satellite and stars.”

We didn’t person clip to answer. We had arrived, and the curtain fell connected different exhausting day.

The return

I told my household what I saw connected al-Rashid, and they listened, shocked and intrigued, to their “field correspondent”.

They, too, were preoccupied with nutrient shortages, discussing mixing their past kilo of flour with pasta to agelong it further – conversations ruled by fearfulness of hunger and the unknown.

We didn’t enactment long, conscionable 2 days earlier heading backmost on a roadworthy filled with fearfulness of bombing and assistance seekers.

Only this clip it was daylight, and I could spot women sitting by the road, acceptable to walk the nighttime waiting for aid.

About 2 weeks later, connected June 26, we made the travel again.

I travelled with my 2 children, my sister – who had travel backmost with america connected the past travel – and my brother’s woman and her 2 young children: four-year-old Salam and two-year-old Teeb. My hubby came the adjacent day.

We were 7 successful a small, worn-out minibus, and we had 9 others crammed successful with us: 3 men beside the driver, a young antheral with his woman and sister, and a pistillate with her hubby and child.

Sixteen radical successful a van, intelligibly not built for that!

Although vehicles are banned from al-Rashid, immoderate bash negociate to pass. Tired and disquieted astir the young children with us, we took the hazard and, that day, we made it.

I don’t cognize whether it was destiny oregon misfortune, but arsenic our van neared the country astir the Netzarim Corridor, World Food Programme trucks arrived.

Two trucks stopped connected the road, waiting to beryllium “looted”.

People successful Gaza volition archer you this is simply a caller argumentation nether Israeli terms: nary organised distribution, nary lists. Just fto the trucks in, fto whoever tin instrumentality aid, instrumentality it, and fto the remainder die.

People stitchery to person assistance astatine a organisation centre successful Gaza City connected June 26, 2025 [Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]

On a adjacent street, 3 others besides stopped. People began climbing the trucks, grabbing what they could.

Within moments, each vehicles, tuk-tuks, and carts, including our van, stopped. Everyone astir america – men, women, and children – started moving towards the trucks.

A commotion erupted successful our car. The young antheral travelling with his woman and sister insisted connected going contempt their pleas not to. He jumped retired and 2 different men followed.

I was astir shocked erstwhile a pistillate down america shoved past, telling her hubby and son: “I’m going. You stay.”

She ran similar the wind. Other women and girls near adjacent vehicles and sprinted to the trucks.

I wondered: Would she beryllium capable to ascent up the broadside of a motortruck and wrestle men for food?

Human waves surged astir us, seemingly from nowhere, and I begged our operator to determination on. The country felt similar a conflict for survival, good past thoughts of dignity, justice, and humanity.

The operator moved slowly; helium had to support stopping to debar the crowds of radical moving successful the other direction. My anxiousness spiked. The kids sensed it too.

None of america could comprehend what we were seeing, not adjacent me, a writer who claims to beryllium informed. The truth: world is wholly different.

As we drove, I saw young men clutching bags, lasting by the roadside. One had a knife, fearing he’d beryllium attacked.

Other men carried blades oregon tools due to the fact that being attacked by chap bare radical is not unlikely.

“We’ve go thieves conscionable to devour and provender our children,” is the caller signifier Israel is imposing done its “humanitarian” US-run instauration and its “distribution policy”.

And present we are, successful this collapsing societal order, wherever lone the cries of bare stomachs are heard.

How tin we blasted radical for their misery? Did they take this war?

The car coiled its mode done until the flood of assistance seekers yet dissipated. It felt similar emerging from different world.

We reached an intersection downtown, wholly drained. I silently unpacked the car, wondering: How galore sorrowful worlds are buried wrong you, Gaza?

That day, I saw the satellite of the assistance seekers aft spending 20 months immersed successful the worlds of the displaced, the wounded, the dead, the hungry, and the thirsty.

How galore much worlds of suffering indispensable Gaza endure earlier the satellite yet sees america – and we yet gain a lasting ceasefire?