Iran-Israel conflict: Gazans fear visibility of their suffering

Iran-Israel conflict: Gazans fear visibility of their suffering

The young girl sits on the dusty ground clutching her father's shoe as she cries and screams in anger. Bisan Qwaider is heartbroken. Her father was just killed while trying to get food for her and her ten hungry siblings.

The sad loss

Khaled Sha'ath, the photojournalist who captured Qwaider's pain on Sunday, told CNN that Bisan's father, Shadi, had left the family tent in Mawassi, southern Gaza, a few days earlier to go to Ma'an, east of Khan Younis.

Shadi was aware of the danger involved in traveling to this area: Ma'an had already been under an Israeli evacuation order for some time and was being bombarded there. Nevertheless, his children were very hungry and he thought he could find some food for them in the neighboring town.

Hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip is facing a hunger crisis. A UN-backed report released in late April warned that one in five people in Gaza threatened by hunger and that the entire area is moving closer to starvation. According to the UN, the situation has worsened since then.

Sha'ath reported that Qwaider was killed in an airstrike and his body was recovered from the rubble on Sunday. He is one of hundreds who have died trying to find food in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, according to Gaza health authorities.

Blockade and humanitarian crisis

CNN asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the situation in Ma'an. The IDF responded by sending CNN a map of the Gaza Strip with "dangerous combat zones" marked in red - including Ma'an and more than half of the territory.

In late May, Israel partially lifted an 11-week total blockade of the Gaza Strip, but humanitarian organizations report that aid currently arriving is only a tiny fraction of what is actually needed.

“Without immediate, massive and widespread access to basic means of survival, we risk a descent into hunger, further disorder and the loss of many lives,” Tom Fletcher, the U.N. humanitarian chief, said last week.

Global response

The humanitarian disaster in Gaza has sparked global outrage and prompted many of Israel's closest allies to speak out. France, the United Kingdom and Canada issued a rare statement last month criticizing Israel and threatening "concrete steps" if the situation in Gaza does not improve.

The United Kingdom interrupted trade negotiations with Israel and imposed sanctions on settlers in the West Bank. The European Union also said it would review an important cooperation agreement with Israel.

Forgotten in conflict

But as tensions between Israel and Iran continue to rise, the people of Gaza worry that the limited pressure on Israel could quickly fade because of their suffering.

"The war between Israel and Iran has made people completely forget. Nobody looks at us, there is no food, water or anything. Every day people go trying to get food and help and end up in body bags," Mohammad, a Gazan who did not want to give his last name, told CNN on Monday.

Umm Mustafa, another Gazan, explained that the growing conflict between Iran and Israel has resulted in her suffering disappearing from international news coverage. “The entire focus has shifted to the Israeli-Iranian war, although Gaza seems to have disappeared from the map,” Mustafa said.

A frightening result

Since October 7, 2023, more than 55,300 people have been killed and more than 128,700 injured, according to health authorities there. The numbers are staggering: the death rate is approximately 2.5% of Gaza's entire population, meaning that for every 40 Palestinians who lived in Gaza before the war, one is now dead.

A peer-reviewed study published in the Lancet journal earlier this year says that the number of people killed in Gaza is significantly higher than the figures reported by authorities in the area. CNN cannot independently confirm this information, and Israel has banned international journalists from independent reporting in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

The humanitarian situation is deteriorating

The deadly hunger crisis continues to worsen. The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday that people are struggling to obtain basic goods due to Israeli restrictions on imports of goods.

Meanwhile, a U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid initiative, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is struggling controversial Organization that was created after Israel accused Hamas of stealing aid in Gaza and profiting from selling it to carry out its mission.

The organization has been criticized by several international aid agencies for being unfit for purpose. According to Gaza health authorities, at least 300 people have been killed since the GHF's ​​distribution lines opened in late May killed, which are located in areas surrounded by active combat zones.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported last week that Israeli authorities have allowed only a limited number of UN agencies and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to resume aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip after the blockade was partially lifted, and that "only very limited quantities of certain foods, nutritional supplements, some medical supplies and water treatment supplies" are allowed.

Other relief supplies, such as construction materials, hygiene products and medical equipment, continue to be blocked by Israel, according to OCHA.

"People can't find anything to eat or drink. The price of a sack of flour is now 300 to 500 times higher than before... it actually feels like the world has forgotten us," another Gaza resident, Abu Mohammed, told CNN.

For young Bisan Qwaider, the only item she could get from her father was his shoe.

As she screamed for her father, she looked to the sky and shouted a message to those she blamed for his death: "May God hold you accountable," she said.