Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hamas has been trying to promote a false campaign suggesting Gazans are starving due to insufficient humanitarian aid. However, recent images from the Strip paint a very different picture than what the terror organization wishes to show.
Gaza-based bloggers sharing content about life during the war show that large amounts of food, including meat and eggs, have recently entered the enclave — something that hadn't happened before.
Maher Haboush, a blogger and fitness coach from Gaza City, filmed a video on Saturday in which he held a bag of meat and happily walked through the city’s streets, saying, "After over 10 months, I have meat." In another video filmed in northern Gaza, large quantities of meat skewers were seen in a local restaurant. "It’s the first time in a year that we're seeing kebabs (Middle Eastern meat patty)," locals said.
Hassan Raslan, a Gaza resident, explained in a post on social media: "UNRWA agencies began distributing large packages of meat, chicken, eggs and vegetables some time ago, with criteria based on family size. The distribution stopped for a while but resumed but when new supplies arrived.”
“I got a message saying I’d receive a large chicken two weeks ago after the chicken supply ran out. They gave me eggs, and suddenly, a large amount of lamb meat arrived yesterday. The distribution was intended for families with more than three members. Distribution of one of these four items, which are considered valuable and rare today, is based on supply and demand,” he added.
Moreover, after polio was diagnosed in Gaza last month and amid environmental hazards in displaced camps where Gazans complained of a severe shortage of hygiene products, personal hygiene goods entered the local market last week causing prices to drop significantly.
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced earlier this week that "over 50,000 aid trucks and nearly a million tons of aid have been sent to Gaza since the start of the war," and that good delivery policy hasn’t changed — though some items haven’t been picked up for a long time by the UN aid agencies operating in Gaza to distribute the products.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates is running one of the largest aid operations to the Gaza Strip, managed by people close to Palestinian leader Mohammed Dahlan, but Gaza residents claim that the aid isn’t being distributed equally.
"Most of the aid is sold in markets and not properly distributed," one displaced Gazan told Ynet. "There’s no supervision. Hamas and Dahlan's people enjoy all the aid coming in, especially in al-Mawasi, while we the displaced, who aren’t affiliated with anyone only get the leftovers — if at all,” he said.