The Passport Camp in the Gaza Strip has become a stark example of what observers have described as an “impending famine.” It houses over 1,800 displaced Palestinian families in a cramped area, living amidst a near-total collapse of the food system. There is no prepared food, no fuel, and virtually no income.
Camp administrator Mohammed Saada stated that approximately 7,000 people live in the camp within a very small geographical area, and that the food crisis is worsening because families have no income to buy food. Even when flour is available, firewood or gas for cooking and baking are unavailable, leaving families helpless with flour they cannot cook.
According to a report broadcast by Al Jazeera Mubasher, each family receives a gas ration only once every three months, and when it does arrive, it lasts for no more than 20 days, leaving them without any means of cooking for the remaining days.
Sa’da explained that the displaced people had been compensating for this by relying on charitable soup kitchens and field kitchens, but the complete shutdown of the “Global Central Kitchen” due to the occupation’s policies has eliminated the last food safety net that was protecting the camp from total collapse.
For their part, the displaced people described the multifaceted dimensions of the crisis, which is not limited to the lack of food alone, but extends to the spread of mosquitoes and insects, skin diseases, and the absence of sanitation facilities, in addition to chronic illnesses suffered by the elderly and people with disabilities, who find themselves in conditions that would be difficult for even a healthy person to endure.
The same displaced person pointed out that the high prices of fuel materials such as wood and gasoline in the local market have become beyond the means of most displaced people to purchase, even when these materials are available. Meanwhile, 80% of Gaza’s infrastructure has been reduced to piles of rubble, iron, and debris by the Israeli aggression, leaving no homes or shelter. The camp official warned that what is happening in the passport camp is not an exception, but a pattern that is repeated across all Gaza camps, stressing that famine is no longer a future threat, but has become a present reality knocking on the doors of the camps one after another, in light of international silence and a scarcity of aid that is not commensurate with a humanitarian disaster of this magnitude.
