‘Unbelievable prices’ of food worsen hardship in Gaza

Forty-one dollars. That’s how much three potatoes in Gaza costs. The soaring costs don’t stop at potatoes.

All of these canned goods once cost 20 Shekels or $5.50. Now, 20 Shekels can’t buy you one can,” say residents.

Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip, where people have been hit hardest by hunger, say they can barely afford to eat, and there’s no work for them to try to afford the exorbitant prices.

“The prices here in the north are unbelievable,” says a man shopping in Gaza City’s old market.

“The basic necessities are not available, we don’t have vegetables, meat, eggs.”

Most of the food found in the market is canned, with many saying that it makes them sick.

The number of children with acute malnutrition in northern Gaza was four times higher in July than in May. While in the more accessible south, where fighting is less severe, the number more than doubled.

United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said last week that the amount of food entering Gaza in July was one of the lowest since October, when Israel imposed a full siege after Hamas gunmen stormed Israeli communities killing 1 200 and taking hundreds of hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 40 500 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry and the crowded enclave has been laid to waste.