Alaa used to work as a tailor in Beit Lahia, Gaza. A proud father of four, three of his children live with thalassemia, a blood condition that makes the availability of nutritious food vital for their survival. The better the quality of their food, the longer his children could go between blood transfusions. As a result, the lack of medical care and the scarcity of food in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip -  particularly fresh, nutritious meals – is a potential death sentence for them.

Before the war, Maysarah, 23, Abdullah, 21, and Samir 18, required blood transfusions every two weeks, depending on the quality of their food. Malnutrition resulting from the war means they now need transfusions every week.  Scarce medication also puts their lives at risk.

Alaa recounts the story of his family’s displacement, one that has no end in sight given that their home and his shop have been destroyed. "At first, we left our home in Beit Lahia after receiving evacuation orders and went to the UNRWA Fakhoura School, hoping it would be a safe place. It was also near a hospital, which is important given that my children require blood transfusions. But soon the shelling around us intensified, and eventually the school we were sheltering in was hit. We fled barefoot without taking anything with us. I was running in the streets with my children, shells falling around us, and houses collapsing on the roads. I don’t know how we survived, but we did. Many people around me were killed. When we reached Al-Nasr Children's Hospital, we stayed there.”

Yet again they were forced to flee when the hospital was bombed. “The crowd was terrified. I was afraid that one of my children would fall ill and that I wouldn't be able to protect him from people as they stampeded to leave the area. Thousands of people were pushing outside the hospital, and warplanes were bombing it. I remember two children who were killed that day,” he recounts, with a haunted expression.

"When they announced the Rafah operation, we moved again to the Mawasi area. I couldn't find a place close to any hospital in the south, so I resigned myself to reality and set up a tent in Mawasi, here in the desert, on these sand dunes. There is no nearby water source or hospital. As I was building our tent, Abdullah collapsed in front of me. When I couldn't find transportation to take him to the Al-Aqsa Hospital, I carried him. The hospital was filled with those killed and wounded from ongoing shelling. I couldn't find an empty bed for him, it was total chaos! There was blood everywhere, with bodies strewn across the hospital floor. When the doctor examined my son, he found that he needed blood units immediately. The hospital had no blood units available since there were so many trauma patients, who also needed blood transfusions,” Alaa recalls.

Alaa left the hospital to look for a donor. “I went around asking passersby to donate blood. I was practically begging, but many told me they hadn't eaten and feared that they would faint. I found a young man willing to donate. When I returned to the hospital, my son Abdullah had already died. Abdullah died and was relieved of this unjust world," says Alaa.

The suffering of the Abu Al-Nasr family continues, with the lack of healthy food putting their other children at risk of suffering Abdullah’s fate.

UNRWA continues to support displaced people wherever they are with available aid, whenever possible. The Abu Al-Nasr family receives their food ration from the Agency and medical support from a local UNRWA clinic. However, it is far from enough.

Fares sits in his tent in central Gaza. He has been displaced five times since the war began in October 2023. © 2024 UNRWA Photo

Fares Qandeel, 69, is also displaced. He hails from Sabra, Gaza. He was a car mechanic and dabbled in real estate when his schedule would allow. His displacement journey has had five chapters so far. First, he fled from Sabra to Deir al-Balah, then to Rafah. When evacuation orders came for Rafah, he was forced to move to Khan Younis, and from there, he now finds himself in Zawaida, central Gaza.

Fares suffers from chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, which have made it difficult to move so frequently, especially without medication to keep his ailments managed. Fear has engulfed him as he witnessed the arrest of Palestinians through his displacement journeys.  He has also witnessed harassment and killings, and people made to strip off their clothes and discard what little belongings they had with them to pass checkpoints. He told us that he expected death on several occasions, since his home was partially bombed, with artillery shells still inside, making it uninhabitable.

 Amid all this trauma, it is the man-made hunger crisis that strikes Fares the hardest. Fares, like other displaced persons, receives aid from UNRWA, distributed inside the Agency’s shelters. This includes canned food and flour. But access restrictions into and around the Gaza Strip have impeded the flow of aid, which is never enough to meet the enormous needs of nearly two million displaced people.

He says, "Death here is never sudden, but life here comes suddenly." Speaking of memories from his travels, Fares recalls when he visited Jerusalem in 1972.  He remembers how he used to pray in the Omari Mosque and shop in city’s Zawiya Market, confident that he will return one day. "World leaders must be serious in addressing this issue and stand by us and the people. We have witnessed chapters of the tragedy of displacement, from starvation and intense bombing to destruction. This terrifying tragedy must stop!” he asks.