The Decibel - Gazan journalist describes starvation, chaos on the ground

Episode Date: July 31, 2025

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since May. And more than 150 deaths have been attributed to malnutrition, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.Israel denies there is any starvation.But recently, there has been mounting pressure from humanitarian groups and governments, including Canada. On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Carney announced that Canada intends to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September.Hasan Jaber is a journalist living in Gaza who has worked with Globe and Mail correspondents for more than two decades. He tells The Decibel about his reporting in Gaza, as well as his own struggle to find food and water from his home at Bureij Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip.Plus, International Affairs reporter Janice Dickson explains the world’s reaction to rising concerns about hunger in Gaza, as well as Israel’s response.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

People are starving in the Gaza Strip. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since May. Over 150 deaths have been attributed to malnutrition, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel denies there is any starvation. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza. We enable humanitarian out throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza. Otherwise, there would be no Gazans. But recently, there has been mounting pressure from humanitarian groups and governments, including Canada.

Then, on Wednesday evening, The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable, and it's rapidly deteriorating. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada and Canada and, tends to recognize the state of Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September, saying that it's conditional on Hamas playing no future role in the governance of Palestine. Canada will always steadfastly support Israel's existence as an independent state in the Middle East living in peace and security. Any path to lasting peace for Israel also requires a viable and stable Palestinian state and one that recognizes Israel's inalienable right

to security and peace. Israel rejected Canada's endorsement of Palestinian statehood. Hassan Jabber is one of the Gaza residents struggling to access food. He is a 60-year-old journalist born and currently living at the Beraigieg refugee camp. He joins me today to talk about his experience on the ground. And later, I speak with the Globe's International Affairs Reporter, Janice Dixon, about the world's response to starvation in Gaza. I'm Laura Stone, guest hosting the Decibel from the Globe and Mail.

Hello, Hassan. Hello. Hi, it's Laura. I'm with the Globe and Mail. Hi, hi. Hello, Hassan. Thank you so much for speaking with me under what I can only imagine are extremely difficult circumstances for you. You are welcome. How are you doing today? Today is the same as all that is during the war.

There is still shilling. There is still shooting. And there is still a problem in obtaining food or breakfast. It is difficult also to get water, to drinking water. And the situation, the hermitarian situation, in Gaza is getting worse and worse. The aerodrop only goes to a few number of people and the majority was dropped in the areas

which the Israeli army is still controlling. And the other goes to patients and to people, not to all the people in Gaza. This is a situation. We are living in a big service, and people here also are Thursday. Yesterday and the day before, I managed to get some drink water, but I don't know whether I will be able to bring or to get a drink water or not. Can you help me and our listeners understand where you are right now?

What does it look like around you? I'm living in Borej Camp. This camp is a refugee camp located in the middle area of Gaza Strip. Most of these are destroyed, especially in Rafah, Kani Unis, and in the north. people, most of them, are living in tenants or in a destroyed houses who tried to be near their house, their destroyed houses. I'm living in my house. My house, thank God that is still okay.

It was damaged during the war, but I prefer to stay at my house because leaving your house means more problems and troubles for you and for your family. I was displaced six times during the war. So I chose all the time not to leave otherwise I was obliged. If I am obliged to leave to save the lives of my family, I will leave. But till now, I don't know if where to go or where to live because it means a problem in drinking and it means a problem in everything in the life. And which members of your family do you live with? I'm living with my wife and three kids.

And you mentioned the dangers of leaving your home right now. So where do you and your family get your food? Today, you can go to the rough market that appeared during the war. And so you would not fight. I buy the goods or the vegetables or the canned food at that time. I buy them with high prices. And we are also facing problem in getting cash. All that time, I don't have saving money.

Sometimes I spend two or three days without eating bread, which is very expensive. Also, without, and I said, without water, drink water. That is very difficult to be thirsty, to be hungry, and to be in among these troubles and among this shining everywhere. Is there any free food or water available where you are? Yes, right now I have, but it is difficult to get. It is difficult to get my kids began their day by searching about food, about water, about wood

which we use to cook the food that we can get since six months I didn't eat meat or even

canned meat we didn't find only some items of vegetable which is very expensive I'm talking to you and there is sounds of

explosions in the east part of my camp. You may hear in the back. That's what we're hearing right now. You said explosions. Yeah, yes. So obviously you don't have enough to eat right now. How is your health because of this hunger? We canceled one meal. We used to eat three meals, breakfast, lunch. And we now canceled one of this meal. For example, this morning. I eat with my family, I eat Lingt el-sob. Then we eat macaron, macaron, macon,

and spaghetti, and then I will stay during all the night without eating anything. Have you and your family lost weight because of this? Yeah, of course. Not only my family, but also the family. majority of gas and who lost to eat. For example, I was around 100 kilo. Now I am 84. And have you seen any others in your community suffering from hunger or starvation? Yeah, the same thing to the others. My neighbors, my friends and my children, my kids, my wife, my daughter, all of them are the same.

Hassan, you've been a journalist for more than 30 years. You were born in Gaza in the house you are living in right now. Are these the worst conditions you've ever seen? I worked since more than 30 years as a journalist in the Aiyam Newsweber. Also, I worked as a translator or singer for the media. This is the first type that, I passed these circumstances. It is the worst time.

I covered wars in Gaza. I covered in corrections. I covered a lot of Israelis shooting in Gaza. But this time is the worst accident that I have seen and that I have passed. Israel sent food aid drops by airplane on Monday. Did you talk to anyone who was able to get that food? No, no. They are deceiving the world.

This food goes mainly near the Israeli camps or it goes in a far away. And most of those who can get this food is merely. or local gangs who is trying to take everything by force and sometimes they have a knife, swords. And it is easy for them to stab you and to take what you get. So I didn't go and take a rest or I didn't let my children to go to go. children to go there because I don't want to lose anyone from my family. Israel has set up what's being called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and it runs four food aid sites in Gaza. Have you ever been to one to get food?

No, no. Even this center I didn't go because a lot of killing was in these centers, the majority are going during the night and there is shooting. During the night, I hear shooting near my camp. The shooting is towards people who try to get some food from this center. This is the wrong method to distribute food by this way. The vast, there was Unrua Foundation. That's the United, excuse me, that's the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, right? Yes, and they did a great job.

And they have their workers, they have their employee, and they have the mechanism. They have the names and they have the way that help people to get, the food safely without any problems. But unfortunately, Israel and the other associations, they don't want to see UNRWA working. And so it sounds like you just find it too dangerous now to go to the sites that are offering food and collect it for your family.

Yes, of course. It's difficult. I can't take a risk. with my family or my children to go there. No, I don't want. I prefer to stay hungry and thirsty and not to lose one of them. Do you want the international community to do more?

Yes, I want them to take the responsibility of distributing food. I want all the countries to interfere and even to come to Gaza and to keep the peace and to stop the war. Hassan, my last question I want to ask you is, what do you want people around the world to know about those living in Gaza? I want them to know that we are living in a catastrophe. And all this war and all these actions push people to be more,

extremists, not to be convinced. We are, in general, we are secular people, and we are not all, not all the Gazans is Hamas. No, Hamas now didn't represent more than

25% inhabitants in Gaza. We are not Hamas. We didn't vote for Hamas and me, myself, award all my friends and relative not to vote for Hamas, but Hamas managed to deceive them by verses of Quran and by religion.

But now people are regret and they are feeling guilty that they voted for Hamas. Hassan, I want to thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your story. I wish you and your family good health. Thank you, my friend. Thank you very much. That was Hassan Jabber, a journalist in Gaza. We'll talk more about the international response to the hunger crisis in Gaza after the break. Hi, Janice. Thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks so much for having me. Janice, you're the Globe's International Affairs reporter, and you've been.

worked with Hassan Jabber, who we just heard from about what it's like on the ground in Gaza. We're talking at about 1230 on Wednesday. So let's talk now about the international community's response so far to reports of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza. What have organizations and governments said about the situation? Well, statements have been made for quite a while concerning the situation in Gaza. And I think we should mention first the statement that was made, Last week, it was signed by 25 countries, including Canada, which called on Israel to end the war in Gaza, but took specific aim at the food and humanitarian assistance delivery mechanism that Israel supports, and that's being used in Gaza right now.

You know, this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney also called on Israel to give up control of aid delivery. So, you know, sort of reiterating some of those points that he had made earlier. earlier, he called for the aid distribution system to be replaced. Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged that many people are starving in Gaza. It's a terrible situation. The whole thing is terrible. It's been bad for many years, but it's great to hear you feel the same way that I do. We have to help on a humanitarian basis before we do anything.

We have to get the kids fed. He suggested Israel should do more and said that U.S. would set up food centers without barriers to ease access. I don't know that there have been any more details on exactly what the U.S. plans to do. On additional statements that were made this week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which is the International Authority on Food Crisis,

said that there's mounting evidence showing widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths. they said that data indicates that the famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. Antonio Gutierrez, Secretary General of the UN, you know, said that the situation in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. He called it a moral crisis.

He said words don't feed hungry children and the UN is ready to make the most of a ceasefire to scale up operations. Janice, just stepping back a bit from a journalistic perspective, for someone such as yourself, why has it been so difficult to get a read on the situation on the ground when it comes to food? Well, it's incredibly challenging because journalists are not allowed to access Gaza. We can't go there and see for ourselves what's happening. We can't interview people in person. And so we're relying on Palestinians in Gaza to report the news and to share the information that they can.

We're relying on aid organizations to share what they're seeing as best they can. But it really is a huge challenge when you can't go somewhere. What's the Israeli government's response to allegations that there is starvation in Gaza? On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a social media post that there is no starvation in Gaza. And in that post, he reiterated his government's commitment to achieve its war goals, which is to release all the remaining hostages and destroy Hamas' military and governing capabilities. He later said that Israel will continue to work with international agencies as well as the U.S. and European nations. to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid reaches Gaza, Israel said that it would stop its military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza

and also designate specific routes for convoys delivering food basically between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. But, you know, his position is also that Hamas is stealing aid, and that is the justification for their alternative aid distribution system. And, you know, they're also conducting these drops, these airdrops of aid from the sky. And they maintain that they're trying to ensure it doesn't reach Hamas. Okay, so picking up on this, one of the ways Israel says it's trying to prevent aid from reaching Hamas was by using the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Can you remind us how that delivers aid?

Well, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, so it's a private American company, it's supported by Israel, it's supported by the U.S., this foundation set up distribution points at the end of May, and basically UN agencies and other humanitarian groups that were in charge of distributing aid before, you know, they're opposed to this model because they say that it's weaponizing aid and that it's not. reaching people based on where they're set up. It means that people have to walk, you know, long distances to reach these distribution points. And the UN has also said that hundreds of people have died trying to access these aid sites. Can you just compare how aid was delivered previous to May and how it's being delivered now, just to give us a sense of how it's changed? Yeah. I mean, what we could say is like how much aid was reaching people before. and what the estimates have been so far this week. You know, officials were saying that there were between 70, 80 trucks a day traveling into Gaza.

And previously, even during a temporary ceasefire in January, there were something like 600 trucks going in a day. So the UN is saying they need between 500 and 600 trucks a day to prevent people from starving. And that is a level of trucks that Israel was allowing to enter during the temporary ceasefire earlier. this year. And we've seen now the images of the airdrops kind of falling through the sky. How has that been received in Gaza? Have you heard reports of whether that's actually reaching people? So humanitarian aid actors absolutely despise air dropping aid. You know, they say that it's, you know, it's a sign of failure when you have to get food and medicine and other kind of supplies to people this way. It can also be incredibly dangerous because people rush to these palates. And,

you know, they also say that it's vulnerable people can't reach them. Women and children, elderly, you know, it's no way to ensure that whatever is being dropped that way is actually going to reach people in need. Some of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 23, are still in Gaza. Do we know anything about what's happening to them as the fighting and starvation continue. There's approximately 50 hostages who are still held in Gaza and roughly 20 people are believed to still be alive. We don't have a good sense of their conditions, how they're doing.

I would imagine they would also be affected by this lack of aid that's getting to that area. There was a major development this week with the UK saying on Tuesday that it will recognize Palestinian statehood in September if Israel doesn't end the, quote, appalling situation in Gaza and work towards a two-state solution, which would mean Israel and Palestine exist as two countries side by side. What would be different if the UK did recognize Palestinian statehood? Well, I think at this stage, it's largely symbolic, but it is one that would anger Israel. And in fact, Prime Minister Benjamin Nanyahu already said that Starmer's comments rewards Hamas' monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims.

It's important to note that out of the 193 UN member states, more than 140 already recognized Palestine as a state. And so it's obviously a powerful statement for the UK and France to come out and recognize. Palestinian self-determination. But at this stage, I'm not sure that it would change anything significantly on the ground. Just to cap off, in terms of your reporting and what you've learned in covering the story, do you see any significant changes down the road on how aid can be delivered in Gaza? Do you think that we're going to see more food aid being able to be delivered to people? Yeah, it's a really hard question to try and predict how Israel will respond,

but they have not come under this kind of pressure before. Like there's been a number of statements that countries, including Canada, have made, you know, condemning what's unfolding there and stressing the importance of humanitarian aid. But now, you know, especially with Donald Trump saying that people are starving there and the U.S. is Israel's closest allies. it does feel like we could be at a turning point where there is such pressure that Israel would, you know, allow the UN to get their trucks in and what have you on the level that's required. It seems like that's not out of reach right now. Janice, thank you so much for your time today. Oh, thanks for having me. That was International Affairs reporter Janice Dixon. That's it for

today. I'm Laura Stone. Kasha Mihailovich produced this episode. Our producers are Madeline White, Mihal Stein, and Ali Graham. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pachenza is our executive editor. Thank you for listening.