We walk into 'death traps' every day just to feed our families: Gaza resident | Top Stories
The number of Palestinians being killed by Israeli forces while waiting for food is going up by the hour. More than 40 people have been died since dawn on Wednesday across Gaza, at least 14 of them while seeking aid at the controversial centres backed by Israel and the US. The UN Agency for Palestinian refugees has described the distribution centres as "death traps".
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud has the latest updates from Gaza City, Palestine.
The number of Palestinians being killed by Israeli forces while waiting for food is going up by the hour. More than 40 people have been died since dawn on Wednesday across Gaza, at least 14 of them while seeking aid at the controversial centres backed by Israel and the US. The UN Agency for Palestinian refugees has described the distribution centres as "death traps".
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud has the latest updates from Gaza City, Palestine.
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00:00The number of Palestinians being killed by Israeli forces while waiting for food is going up by the hour.
00:07More than 40 people have died since dawn on Wednesday across Gaza.
00:11At least 14 of them while seeking aid at the controversial centres backed by Israel and the US.
00:17The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees has described the distribution centres as death traps.
00:24For the very latest, we're joined by Hani Mahmoud, who's in Gaza City.
00:27Hani, can you just explain why people are lining up, even at the risk of being killed?
00:33Is it out of sheer desperation right now?
00:40Well, Tom, after three months of suffocating, the blockade, zero entry of much needed aid and survival items,
00:47it's becoming clear in each passing that it's a matter of survival and less about the risk that people are taking.
00:54A lot of people here, do you know, they're going, they might not come back.
00:56They know they're going to this site.
00:59They might also not come back with any flowers, with any bag of flowers or any of the survival items or basic food supplies,
01:06let alone dying at the centre.
01:07But they have no other options.
01:09The more we talk to people, the more we realize this is the only motivation right now behind them taking the risk
01:16and showing up at these centres despite the danger, despite the risk that they are taken.
01:22And for better understanding of what's going on inside these centres, we're joined by one of the aid seekers,
01:29who happened to be a lawyer as well as a lecturer at one of the local universities,
01:32but find himself forced to be at these centres on a daily basis to find food supplies
01:38and bring them back to his family who are sheltering in one of the displacement sites.
01:43We're joined by Mr. Faiz Hassan, an aid seeker from the northern part of the strip,
01:49who walks almost on daily basis close to 10 kilometres to the GHF centres.
01:54Thank you for your time.
02:00I start by asking you the main reason, what's the main motivation to head to the food distribution on daily basis
02:09despite the high risks?
02:11Frankly speaking, since the Israeli occupation forces belligerents in Gaza started and the total blockade to Gaza,
02:19we have all the population in Gaza have been suffering starvation, absence of basic supplies and medical supplies.
02:28We have no other option but to go and get our hands on any food despite the high risks.
02:36We need you to put us in the picture.
02:40How does it look like within the food distribution?
02:43How do you feel when you feel the bullets zooming and jet fighters hovering above your hands?
02:53Before establishing these food distribution centres, we have been suffering.
02:59We start venturing out at about 12 o'clock midnight, risking our lives.
03:06We are expecting to be shot at any point of time.
03:10We are surrounded by Israeli jet fighters and quadcopters.
03:17Many of them are having machine guns mounted on them.
03:22In addition to that, the positions of the Israeli occupation forces are shelling us with artillery and tank shells.
03:32In addition to the opening of gun fires, crowds of thousands, more than 250,000, up to half a million,
03:44are flocking to the only centre, food distribution centre in the Gaza Strip.
03:49What is graver in danger are the quadcopters or the drone, Israeli drones that are opening fire indiscriminately on the crowd.
04:00Despite the fact that none of the civilian population among these crowds are posing any danger,
04:06we are headed towards the American food distribution which we call the death traps.
04:14The Israeli quadcopters, the Israeli quadcopters, drones are opening fire randomly and indiscriminately on the civilian population.
04:23Apart from that, the Israeli warships and are opening fire and also shelling us from the sea.
04:32We are walking into death traps, facing death every single minute.
04:38The distribution centres open their doors at 6 o'clock in the morning, during which through those hours we face death.
04:46Based on your narrative, the main reason you go and risk your life is the family, depending on you.
04:58You are getting out there to get a loaf of bread for your family.
05:03How many members are there in your family and what are you trying to bring back home?
05:08I have a family of six. Two of them are with disability.
05:16Unfortunately, we do not have any support.
05:20I am 56 years of old.
05:23I have no other alternative but to head to the food distribution centre.
05:26The first thing that comes to my head is flour.
05:30I wish to get my hand on some flour to make some food for some bread for my family.
05:37Also, I have tried to get some canned food, oils or any sweets.
05:43We are losing energy.
05:45For years we haven't had any protein or any basic nutrition.
05:51We are starving, facing hunger.
05:56My children are suffering malnutrition.
06:01I myself lost 35 kilograms.
06:04I can hardly climb the stairs.
06:08My children are starving to death.
06:12The average food they are having is half a loaf of bread.
06:18I am an engineer working as a forensic expert.
06:23I am also a lawyer.
06:25My wife is a math teacher.
06:28I have a daughter and son.
06:30One of them is an engineer and the other is a doctor.
06:32We are ill-treated in these food distribution centres.
06:38This adds insult to injury.
06:40Many of the food items are even being withheld.
06:45We are giving very inferior food, the type of cheese that can only be put to the mouse traps.
06:55Not only the Israeli occupation force is killing our people randomly as hundreds are falling on daily basis.
07:02About 100 civilians are killed on daily basis, starving to death, trying to get some food.
07:10Even we have seen many of the dead bodies lying on the road, bloated and reeking, even devoured by the stray dogs.
07:20The American soldiers or the American staff working on the distribution of aid have no mercy.
07:28They even try to target the crowds with the paper sprayers.
07:34They are ill-treating us.
07:37This is a living proof that this aid is not meant to lend a helping hand to our people, yet it is nothing but a death trap.
07:47Final question, and in brief, please.
07:51Does it come to your head that you may go and never come back?
07:57What about the fate of your family members on daily basis?
08:02It is a daily suffering.
08:04I expect to die every single day.
08:08I swear to God, if anything happens to me, my family members will die.
08:13I leave behind a family of six, starving to death, and the average meal of each of them is half a loaf of bread.
08:23And this defies humanity.
08:26The entire world has lost humanity.
08:29I regret to say that the Palestinian people are falsely depicted as monsters, beasts, not human beings.
08:38This is a smear in the face of humanity.
08:41It is a disgrace on the global community.
08:48The Israeli occupation forces have no justification for this excessive violence, daily, systematic, methodological killing.
08:58We, apart from that, we walk on foot long distances, surrounded by death from all directions, shelling, bullets, jet fighters, drones.
09:11And what adds insult to injury is what we see in the food distribution centers, despite the fact that we are all peaceful civilian population.
09:22As we heard from Mr. Hassan, a vivid and accurate description of what's going on inside the distribution centers, very consistent with what we have been hearing and learning from eyewitnesses and people who showed up at these centers.
09:40centers, there is nothing, there is nothing relief about what's going on at these centers, rather have turned largely into death traps for the hungry and displaced civilian population.
09:54Honey, as always, thanks so much for bringing us the reality on the ground there in Gaza.
