Diary of a Gazan family’s descent toward starvation

CAIRO/GAZA CITY: Mervat Hijazi and her nine children didn’t eat at all on Thursday – save her underweight baby who had a sachet of peanut paste.

“I’m so ashamed of myself for not being able to feed my children,” Hijazi told Reuters from their tent pitched amid the rubble of Gaza City. “I cry at night when my baby cries and her stomach aches from hunger.”

Six-year-old Zaha can’t sleep because of Israel’s bombardment.

“She wakes up terrified, shaking, and then remembers she didn’t eat and is hungry. I put her back to sleep, promising her food in the morning. Of course I lie.”

Hijazi, 38, recounted a terrible week.

Sunday, May 18: Her family was given about half a kilo of cooked lentils from a community kitchen run by a charity, half the amount she would normally use for a single meal.

Monday: A local aid group was distributing some vegetables in the camp but there wasn’t enough to go round and Hijazi’s family didn’t get any. Her 14-year-old daughter Menna went to the community kitchen and came back with a meagre amount of cooked potato.

Everyone was hungry so they filled up by drinking water.

Tuesday: The family received about half a kilo of cooked pasta from the kitchen. One daughter was also given some falafel by an uncle who lived nearby.