Prices soar as people in Gaza face severe food shortages

Severe food shortages are adding to the woes of Palestinians in Gaza as food supplies run out and prices skyrocket.

Yasmin Eid, who has been displaced five times by the Israeli offensive, cooks a meagre meal for her family over an open fire.

Originally from Jabaliya, she now shares a makeshift tent home in central Gaza with her husband and four daughters.

In Deir al-Balah, aid groups have relatively more access than in the north. But everyone in the enclave is going hungry.

"For months, we’ve been sleeping without food, without breakfast. Maybe just one meal that I manage to prepare for me and my family. Prices have skyrocketed, and we cannot afford anything,” says Yasmina.

The family sits down on the ground to eat their only meal for the day.

Meat and chicken all but vanished from the markets months ago, but there are still some local vegetables. Bakeries shut down for five days this week.

The price of a bag of bread climbed above $13 by Wednesday, as bread and flour vanished from shelves before more supplies arrived.

Hani Eid says he feels “ashamed” and finds it difficult to even speak about the suffering his family is going through.

“Our dignity has been violated, children can’t go to school, and the suffering is unbearable. I'm responsible for 25 people, but I cannot even provide them with a single bag of flour."

The United Nations has warned of a “stark increase” in the number of households experiencing severe hunger in Gaza.

Access to food and other aid has been further aggravated by last weekend’s hijacking of nearly 100 aid trucks by a convoy of men in southern Gaza.

Experts say a full-blown famine may be underway in the north of the enclave.

The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

The judges said there was reasonable grounds to believe they were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution, and starvation as a weapon of war " in Gaza — charges Israel denies.

It says it places no limits on the amount of aid entering Gaza and blames UN agencies for not retrieving it, pointing to hundreds of truckloads languishing on the Gaza side of the border.

But the military's own figures show that the amount of aid entering Gaza plunged to around 1,800 trucks in October, down from over 4,200 the previous month.

At the current rate of entry, around 2,400 trucks would come into Gaza in November. Around 500 trucks entered each day before the war.