Starvation in Gaza: Dizziness, fatigue and people collapsing in the streets
Akram Basheer’s children cry out in hunger.
All he can do is hold them and promise: one day, when the Israeli siege ends, you’ll eat whatever you want.
But the Palestinian father of three knows he’s making a promise he can’t keep.
“There’s absolutely nothing I can do,” he told Middle East Eye.
“I just support them psychologically. I tell them, 'Insha'Allah [God willing], things will improve and food will become available.' There is no other option.”
Living in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Basheer, 39, spends each day searching for enough food to feed his children and elderly parents, whose health has sharply deteriorated.
Like nearly all of Gaza’s estimated 2.1 million population, he and his family have been starved under Israel’s total blockade of the Palestinian enclave in place since March.