With the arrival of Christmas and the end of the year, the British NGO Christian Aid, which has continued working in Gaza during the Israeli offensive, came up with the idea of comparing the price of food in the besieged Palestinian territory with the provisions for a meal. special in the United Kingdom: Christmas Eve dinner. The result was devastating. In the south of the Strip, a frozen chicken costs almost 40 euros, an amount similar to the 32 pounds (more than 38 euros) that, according to a calculation by this NGO based on information from the British press and consumer platforms, this cost. a Christmas dinner for four in that European country on average every year. This dinner is traditionally made up of turkey, brussels sprouts and other inexpensive vegetables, such as potatoes and carrots. A kilo of sugar in the Strip costs, according to this organization, 130 euros; one of coffee, 104 and one of tomatoes or onions, 15.
A whole chicken usually weighs on average just over two kilos and this Sunday in Spain, in a large store whose prices this newspaper has consulted, they paid just over eight euros for it. In southern Gaza, where the Israeli offensive and the destruction it has entailed have left almost 80% of its inhabitants without work and without income, according to the UN, the price of a frozen chicken more than quadruples that figure.
In the north of the Palestinian enclave, the situation is much worse. It is impossible to find meat there, warns Christian Aid. Before the start of the Israeli attacks that have already killed some 45,400 people, according to the health authorities of the Strip, that same chicken that is now paid for almost 40 euros cost ten times less, about four euros, the NGO calculates.
Until the start of the bombings and the Israeli ground offensive, hours after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023—in which 1,200 people died—many residents of the Strip were celebrating Christmas. Only about a thousand of the more than two million Gazans are Christians, but many Muslims joined in the Christmas celebrations, not as a religious holiday, but out of tradition. Muslims also venerate the figure of Jesus Christ—for them, the prophet Isa—who is mentioned in the Koran on numerous occasions.
“Christmas used to be a time of joy for Palestinians. Around 70% celebrated it with parties, sweets or new clothes. I did it with my family, even though I am Muslim. This year Christmas is not going to be easy, people will not stop remembering what they did and the dishes they ate. We pray that this ends soon,” predicted a few days ago a Christian Aid consultant, whose testimony the organization collects.
At Christmas in Gaza this year, says Katie Roxburgh, the NGO’s director for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, “there is almost no food available and the price of anything you can get is absolutely exorbitant.” In Beit Lahia – in the northern region of Gaza, where the risk of famine hits hardest – a family needs 20 euros to purchase a liter of oil; 18 to buy a kilo of spinach and 12 to get three eggs, if you are lucky enough to find foods that have become a luxury item.
12 trucks
Data from another NGO, Oxfam Intermón, points to the main reason for this shortage, especially in the especially besieged north of the Strip. This NGO has denounced how Israel “systematically” obstructs the delivery of food and water in that northern region. The siege that the Israeli army has subjected northern Gaza to for the last three months has meant that only 34 trucks with food and water have obtained permission from the military to enter the north in the last two and a half months. and, of them, only 12 managed to distribute the merchandise they were transporting to the Palestinian population.
“The aid from three of those vehicles was distributed among people who were taking refuge in a school that was evicted and bombed hours later” by the Israeli army, Oxfam also denounces. He refers to the Mahdia al Shawa school in Beit Hanun, whose facilities were attacked in November by the Israeli army and drones while food was being distributed to displaced families taking refuge there. The next day, Israeli aircraft bombed the school.
Before the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, between 500 and 600 trucks, many with food, entered the territory every day. The Gazans also maintained agricultural and livestock farms and orchards, most of which have now been destroyed by Israeli bombing or tanks.
In June, the United Nations Food Agency (FAO) stated that 96% of the Gazan population, of more than two million people, faced levels of acute food insecurity. If these figures are transferred to the European Union, the proportional figure would be around 431 million inhabitants out of a total population of around 450 million.
The United Nations Integrated Food Security Phase Classification worsened those forecasts in November, when it stated that there is a high probability that famine is already occurring in areas of northern Gaza, where in December, the UN estimated that there were still between 65,000 and 75,000 Palestinians.
“People are forced to take unimaginable and desperate measures to survive. Children and women search for scraps of food among piles of garbage, with bare hands and often barefoot, risking contracting diseases and injuries from sharp metals and exposing themselves to the threat of unexploded explosives. Gaza now has the largest number of amputees in the world, with the health system decimated and critical supplies, including anesthesia, scarce,” Intermón Oxfam emphasizes in its statement.
On November 21, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, considering that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that they had committed war crimes by “ starving civilians.”