Pacifist and convinced non-violent, Ziad Medoukh is a French professor at university. He lives in Gaza-Ville, a place he has always refused to leave. In this chronicle, he talks about life in Gaza but also of hope and the future.
An endless tragedy when Gaza dies of hunger
After 22 months of assault, the situation goes from bad to worse in the Gaza Strip. In addition to intensive and incessant bombings and insecurity, a real famine has settled. And I, personally, I am experiencing total distress. It is difficult to describe it and tell it as the situation is horrible.
Faced with famine, solidarity is falling
There is almost nothing on the market, the products are not found and the little that is found there is some pasta, some cans, lenses, white beans and peas that cost unthinkable prices. I go to the market every day and I come back with nothing. It hurts me for children, for people who live with me. Everyone suffers. The slogan “no one dies of hunger in Gaza” was replaced by “everyone is hungry in Gaza”. Family and social solidarity which has always been a strong point in the Palestinian enclave, even besieged, has become minimal. As far as I’m concerned, I sometimes stay two or three days without eating anything because I prefer to give my children a piece of bread when I think.
International organizations accomplices to this fatal trap?
Only two or three refueling trucks go through day, intended for international organizations, organizations that put their content in their deposits on the pretext that there is not enough to distribute to everyone. These deposits are regularly attacked by armed groups or hungry people. International organizations say they can do nothing. Are they accomplices of this mortal trap that is this famine used as a weapon of war? In fact, there have been two free distribution centers since May 27, but only in the south and in the center of the Gaza Strip. These centers are managed by an American company accomplice of the Israeli army.
Traders take advantage of the situation to do business
When the hungry population approaches to recover a few bags or a few cans, we shoot them. From May 27 until the end of July 2025, there were almost 930 dead and 5,600 Palestinian injured. There are more dishonest merchants who recover the help and then resell it much more expensive in Gaza Ville. Example : If a 25 kg bag of flour is bought € 500 (€ 20 per kilo) it will be sold for € 75 to € 80 per kilo in Gaza Ville. For 1 kg of sugar, it takes € 130. 1 kg of rice, € 80! Unthinkable! The problem is that there are no authorities, government or civil society to manage the situation, organize the market and control prices. Merchants decide on prices themselves to make the most of the situation.
The middle class in total suffering, what about the poorest?
How does the population survive in this extreme situation? Personally, I suffer and yet I am part of the middle class. With other residents, we decided to boycott the traders “who take advantage”. I have to feed my children, but it’s too expensive. In the evening, when everyone sleeps, I cry to hide my helplessness. I always ask myself the question: am I stubborn? , Because I refused to leave Gaza, I pay the consequences today? I don’t know. But it is difficult to tell, to describe my total distress, my inability to act in this hell, because it is total helplessness. And yet, I am privileged because I have friends and I have networks. I speak with a dozen people per day on the internet. We exchange, we discuss, they relieve me, send me photos, videos of the solidarity that is organized.
Associations that are more beautiful than they are?
For once, I decided to drop my pride and I asked for help through French, Swiss or Belgian friends with links with structures that finance associations in Gaza. They claim to distribute food to hundreds of families in the city of Gaza and send photos and videos of their actions every day on the networks. I asked for a little food for my family and I, as well as for the displaced by my building. The response of associations is that they cannot provide anything because everything is too expensive. But how do they then feed hundreds of families as they claim, supporting photos and videos? In short, we feel here that everyone is an accomplice to break the will of the exhausted civilian population.
