When Mohammed leaves his temporary home in northern Gaza to look for food, there are 17 hungry people waiting for him to come home with something.
– Three of them are my children, one of them is a baby in diapers. Every morning they hope that I will come home with a box, says Mohammed.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, after the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel in which around 1100 people were killed – international journalists have not been allowed into Gaza.
That’s why TV4 Nyheterna has been collaborating for a long time with the freelance journalist Samy Zyara and his team who live in Gaza.
Several countries use parachutes
The issue of emergency aid has been high on the diplomatic agenda since the war began. Many, both governments and aid organizations worldwide, have appealed and pressured Israel to open the land routes so that more aid can enter.
In between, Israel has opened up another crossing, but according to aid organizations on the ground, it has not been nearly enough to meet the desperate needs. Because of that, some countries have chosen to drop emergency aid with parachutes, including the United States and Jordan. A number of people have died when they got the box on them, but the airborne aid has continued as there were no other options.
On this day, photographer Ramy Zhoud follows Mohammed to see if he is one of those who manage to get hold of a box.
– I am like everyone else here in northern Gaza. We just have to wait, says Mohammed.
Got a box in the head and died
After a while black dots appear in the sky and everyone starts running or driving to be the first when the parachutes land. Mohammed knows it’s dangerous.
– We don’t know if we should be most afraid of ourselves and the crowd, the Israeli soldiers or the wooden boxes, he says.
Just a couple of days earlier, his friend’s son had a box thrown at him.
– He got it straight in the head and he unfortunately died, says Mohammed.
This time the boxes land right in a bombed house and everyone starts climbing the rubble to get there. Someone cuts themselves on a sharp piece of iron but fights on. Mohammed manages to get hold of one of the boxes and smiles widely.
– I know that the children are waiting outside the door and have probably already started planning who will get what, just in case I come home with something. Today it feels good to go home because I have a box, he says with relief.
“An unbearable swamp”
The box he got hold of contained milk, tuna, beans and rice. A little respite. But at the same time, Mohammed knows that it will not be enough for all 17 family members.
– Tomorrow I have to go out and look again. We who used to think we had a bad situation in Gaza, before the war that is. But now it’s worse than bad. Now it’s an unbearable quagmire, sighs Mohammed.
In a series of reports, TV4 Nyheterna will depict how the civilian population manages to reach the emergency aid that comes in.