‘Our children either bring food or come back dead’

The UN says 1,400 aid-seekers have been killed since May, while starving Palestinians in Gaza call the trek the ‘death journey’

- Nedal Hamdouna, Alex Croft and Bel Trew

As the international community embroils itself in a row about Palestinian statehood, the crisis of hunger in Gaza continues to deteriorate – and starving Palestinians say they are struggling to survive.

As the international community embroils itself in a row about Palestinian statehood, the crisis of hunger in Gaza continues to deteriorate - and starving Palestinians say they are struggling to survive.

Reports of starvation in the enclave persist despite an increase in aid deliveries via the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and airdrops by Jordan, Germany and France. These efforts, Palestinians say, are changing nothing on the ground.

“This is not life,” Asmaa Abu Diya, a 46-year-old mother of eight, tells The Independent. “We are not living a dignified life. The state we have reached is difficult to describe in words. There is no life.”

The challenge of finding food and aid has become known as the “death journey”, Ms Diya says, a journey her son takes regularly. “Either they bring us something and return safely, or they come back dead.

“My son went to get American aid, and a quadcopter dropped a bomb on them, killing people right in front of his eyes. Four people were cut into pieces. My son was hit by shrapnel in his chest, and it remains there to this day,” she adds. “If our children don’t go to die, we won’t eat.”