Six weeks since Israel imposed total Gaza blockade, last food running out

The Star

The bombs still haven't killed Rehab Akhras and her family.   But if the checkpoints that Israel has sealed off since the start of March are not opened soon, she says hunger surely will.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00Six weeks since Israel completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents

00:07of the Gaza Strip, food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all

00:14but run out.

00:15Emergency meal distributions are ending, bakeries are closed, markets are empty.

00:21On a spot of packed ground in a camp of plastic sheets where she lives with her displaced

00:26family in Khan Yunus, 64 year old rehab, used cardboard to light a fire and boil a can

00:34of beans.

00:36It is all they have left.

00:37We are 13 people, why don't we do this?

00:40We have to eat, we have to eat, we have to eat, we have to eat, we have to eat, we have

00:44to eat, we have to eat, we have to eat, we have to eat, we have to eat, we have to eat,

00:51we have to eat.

00:53To the north in Nusirat, hundreds of Palestinians queued up for hot cooked rice at an outdoor

00:59emergency kitchen.

01:01Small children jammed the front of the queue, waving buckets to bring something home for

01:06their families.

01:08Aid agencies that have been supplying those emergency meals say they will have to stop

01:13within days unless they can bring in more food.

01:17The World Food Programme used to provide bread at 25 bakeries across the Gaza Strip.

01:24All of those bakeries are now shut.

01:26It will soon have to halt distribution of food parcels at reduced rations.

01:31All basic supplies are running out.

01:36The markets are also running out of basics.

01:40There was a black market in Gaza.

01:43Now it's a very, very black market.

01:45And what I mean by that is that the prices of commodities have exponentially increased over

01:53the past one month plus since the Israeli authorities put the siege on the Gaza Strip.

02:01Every day that Gaza goes without basic supplies, including food, it means babies, children are

02:09going to bed hungry every day without these basic supplies.

02:15Gaza inches closer towards very, very deep hunger.

02:22Israel denies that Gaza is facing a hunger crisis.

02:26The military accuses Hamas of exploiting aid and says it must keep all supplies out to prevent

02:32the fighters from getting it.

02:35Gaza denies exploiting aid and accuses Israel of using starvation as a military tactic.

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