Yousef Abu Jalila, 38, used to rely on humanitarian aid distributed through the WFP to feed his family of 10. But no such package has arrived in over two months, and the price of what little remains in the markets has skyrocketed.
Now sheltering in a tent in Al-Yarmouk Stadium in central Gaza City, after their home in the Sheikh Zayed neighborhood was destroyed during the Israeli army’s October 2024 incursion into northern Gaza, he told +972: “My children cry to me that they’re hungry, and I have nothing to feed them.”
With no white flour or remnants of canned food, Abu Jalila has no choice but to show up at the aid distribution points or wait for the aid trucks. “I know I might be one of those killed while trying to get food for my family,” Abu Jalila told +972. “But I go, because my family is starving.”
On June 14, Abu Jalila left the tent camp with a group of neighbors after hearing rumors that aid trucks might arrive in the Equestrian club area in the northwestern part of the Gaza Strip. When he got there, he was surprised to find thousands of others hoping to bring back food for their families.
As the hours passed, the crowd drifted closer to an Israeli military position. Then, without warning, several Israeli artillery shells exploded in the middle of the gathering.
“I still don’t know how I survived it,” Abu Jalila said. “Dozens of people were killed, their bodies torn to pieces. Many others were wounded.”
In the chaos, some fled in panic while others scrambled to load the dead and injured onto donkey carts as there were no ambulances or cars nearby. “One young man was blown in half; others had their limbs ripped off,” Abu Jalila recalled. “These were innocent people, unarmed, just trying to get food. Why kill them this way?”
Shaken and empty-handed, Abu Jalila walked four hours back to Gaza City, his legs trembling. When he reached the tent, his children were already outside, waiting. “They were hoping I’d bring food,” he said. “I wished I could die rather than see the disappointment in their eyes.”
Another: