‘Save My Children’: Journalists in Gaza Trade Tools of Truth for Flour
By Shaimaa Eid
Facing total siege and starvation, Gaza’s media workers document death by day—and sell their equipment to survive by night.
“If the price is saving my children from death, then I’m content,” said Palestinian journalist Basheer Abu Alshaer, who offered to sell his camera in exchange for a sack of flour to feed his seven children — children who haven’t had bread in days.
Basheer Abu Alshaer, a 42-year-old freelance journalist working with media outlets on a per-piece basis, never imagined he would fall into such extreme destitution. Yet, he now finds himself forced to part with the most valuable possession he owns just to keep his children alive.
“My post wasn’t a campaign; it was a drowning man’s last grasp at a straw,” he said, explaining what drove him to issue a public plea for help.
Famine in Gaza is devouring those who had managed to survive, while Israel has kept all border crossings into the Strip closed for over 145 days.
“The markets are empty, and a loaf of bread is a dream. I watched my children starving, and there was absolutely no food left in my home. I had nothing left but my camera,” Basheer says. He adds, “Save my children, even if it costs me my third eye.”
Basheer’s story is just one among dozens emerging from besieged Gaza, which is suffering from an overt famine amid a suffocating blockade and the total halt of aid.
The Government Media Office in Gaza has declared that famine is worsening across all governorates, noting that the Strip urgently needs at least half a million bags of flour each week to avert catastrophe.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza has confirmed that famine has claimed the lives of 188 people so far, most of them children and the elderly. Meanwhile, the number of those suffering from malnutrition and hunger-related illnesses continues to rise with each passing day.
Journalist Ahmad Abdel Aziz, one of those severely affected by the crisis, says: “The situation in Gaza is beyond belief. People are collapsing in the streets from hunger.”
He adds, “Aid distribution points have become death traps — whoever ventures out to fetch a sack of flour may return inside it, if they return at all.”
Ahmad was forced to sell one of his microphones to feed his family, but it only lasted for two days. Now, he is seriously considering selling his camera.
“We don’t just document the war — we live it, and then sell our equipment just to survive,” he says, adding that a loaf of bread now sells for three dollars, and a person needs at least two per meal.
The price of a kilogram of flour has reached 100 shekels — approximately $29 — an unbearable cost amid the complete halt of work and the absence of any source of income.
Photojournalist Fadi Thabet is also going through similar circumstances. He requested to postpone the interview due to extreme exhaustion caused by hunger.
Fadi, whose photographs have been featured in international exhibitions portraying life in Gaza, could no longer feed his children and ultimately decided to offer his entire journalistic archive for sale in exchange for a single sack of flour.
“We’re not only suffering from hunger in our stomachs, but from the humiliation of our dignity. This is a deliberate policy to starve the people and break their will,” he says, his voice heavy with pain. “We document death, then live it ourselves.”
He continues, “The fifth stage of famine is terrifying. People walk the streets with sunken eyes and hollow faces. There is no hope, no strength, no life.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Shaimaa Eid is a Gaza-based writer. She contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle.