RAFIF ESLEEM

Gaza- The Israel army has intensified its attacks on the Gaza Strip since it resumed its attacks on March 18, 2025, targeting civilian buildings and infrastructure, including power and water facilities. For more than three months, Israel has blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, causing Palestinians to face starvation.

Women in the Gaza Strip collect wild plants and cook them to feed their children.

“Hunger has reached unprecedented levels,” said Sabera Al-Za'anin, one of the women collecting wild plants to feed her children. “There is no flour or canned food while Israel has kept blocking all food, water, and medicine from entering Gaza.”

The lack of food has forced Sabera Al-Za'anin and a group of women to collect wild plants and cook them for their children. “As women, we collect wild plants and cook them to feed our children.”

These women wake up early and walk for several kilometers to find wild plants such as mallow, purslane, chard and thyme. “Our journey is a risky journey because Israel’s drones always fly over Gaza and sometimes open fire on us. Despite everything, I have to take this risk to feed my 14 children and grandchildren.”

‘When will this misery end?’

Sabra Al-Za'anin tried to hide her tears while talking about how she once returned empty-handed. “I could just find khashash to feed my children and grandchildren. I cooked it and told my children that it was mloukhia (a type of jute plant and a dish made from the leaves of Corchorus olitorius). On the same night, everyone suffered from severe stomach pain that lasted for several days.”

Sabra Al-Za’anin is also a cancer patient who needs treatment abroad; however, Israel does not allow cancer patients to leave from the Gaza Strip. “When will this misery end?” she asked. “What are the countries of the world doing? Are they happy to see how we are starving?”

She also called on people and countries all around the world to stop the ongoing “genocide in the Gaza Strip. Children suffer from hunger every day.”

Laila Abu Karsh is another woman in Gaza, who collects wild plants to feed her children. “Finding wild plants is very difficult. Some of them are poisonous and harmful plants. We must be careful not to collect the poisonous ones,” she said, calling on the international community to put pressure on Israel to allow the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.