Gaza stores filled with luxuries, bare of basics under Israeli blockade

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue to endure hunger under a new starvation policy engineered by Israel, which allows only luxury goods to enter the enclave while blocking essential food and medical supplies.

At first glance, anyone passing through Gaza’s markets might think life has returned to normal after two years of a brutal Israeli offensive that left the territory uninhabitable.

Store shelves are filled with imported biscuits, chocolate boxes, instant coffee jars, and potato chip cans.

However, behind these shelves stacked with consumer luxuries lies a suffocating humanitarian crisis deliberately engineered by Israel to starve Palestinians.

“I haven’t found eggs, chicken, or cheese since food supplies started entering the Gaza Strip,” Aya Abu Qamar, a mother of three from Gaza City, told Anadolu.

“All I see are chocolate, snacks, and instant coffee. These aren’t our daily needs. We’re looking for something to keep our children alive,” she added.

With restrained anger, the Palestinian mother said that the Israeli occupation allows these products to show the world that it facilitates the entry of food into Gaza.

“But they’re of no nutritional value, mostly sugars and carbohydrates lacking proteins and vitamins. This exposes people to serious malnutrition,” she continued.