A Dangerous Quest for Food in Gaza

0:00Today on State of the World, a dangerous quest for food in Gaza.

0:09You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Tuesday, July 2nd. I'm Greg Dixon. What does it take to get food in Gaza today? In this episode, NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, takes the perilous and potentially deadly journey to a food distribution site. The process of distributing food in Gaza recently changed, shifting to a new provider. And since the change, hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli troops as they approach food sites. That's according to health officials and international medical teams in Gaza.

0:48U.S. officials say this is Hamas misinformation being spread by American media. The United Nations calls these new food distribution sites set up by the U.S. and Israel, quote, death traps. You're about to hear Anas Baba's account of seeking food at one of these sites. And a warning, this story contains the sounds of gunfire and descriptions of violence. Here's NPR's Daniel Estrin. 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.

1:32I cannot find the basics, just like flour, cooking oil, lentils. 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. Women faint in the street. Children 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.

2:14Last 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. 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. Others tuck a large empty sack under their belt on one hip and on the other. And the other side is a knife. to protect themselves from the looters and the bandits. 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.

3:06But 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.

3:25This is the moment where everyone here says that's the GHF site, it's 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 see some people that are being crushed. I see some people that they were literally underneath the cars. 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. Every single person started to retreat and run, and the tank did not even wait a second.

4:05Baba recorded the gunfire from a distance. He and his cousin threw themselves to the ground. And I heard the gunshots and the people screaming that they are injured, and others saying that my brother died and others were screaming, my friend died. It's still, in the meantime, 1.48. And the Genfa didn't stop. And I can see in front of me that people are still awaiting. They're not leaving. 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.

4:53At 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 in bodies, and they didn't stop. This is another run? This time, the GHF site was open. Baba watched large crowds tear down a fence to reach boxes of food sitting on wooden pallets. I grabbed my cell phone and started to record what I'm seeing in front of me. And people enter, fighting each other to take as much as possible. A woman in her 40s with her son, and that woman, Switi, 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.

5:47It 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. UN 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.

6:30contractors at the site. People came to me telling me, look at your forehead. There is three laser points, green laser points, on my head from the American contractors. And one of them said out loud with the speaker, no filming is allowed. 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. 170 rights groups and aid groups have called for the GHF system to be dismantled.

7:15At the distribution site, Baba grabbed whatever food he could find tossed on the ground. Beans, cooking oil, biscuits. I pulled five kilograms of rice. It was open with some sand on it, but I didn't care. It's food. I can wash it. 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. They were having big knives, and they told us, you do have two options. Give us half of what you had, okay, or we're going to harm you. 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.

8:03Baba was left with about a week and a half of supplies for himself.

8:10Later that morning, Baba went to the hospital. Health officials said more than 200 people were wounded and 26 killed outside the food site. 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 taking to fill it up with food. 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.

9:00That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.