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The Hassein family: No dairy products, no fruits or vegetables, no rice or even pasta. (Nir Kafri)
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International aid agency: 80 percent of Gazans now rely on food aid
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent

Eighty percent of Gazans receive food aid from the World Food Program or from UNRWA, WFP spokesperson Kirstie Campbell says, "and without it they are liable to starve."

The dozens of laborers who used to cross into Israel every day to work also found themselves unemployed as a result of laws prohibiting them from working and the construction of the separation barrier.

WFP officials refer to the people affected by these developments "the new poor," former members of the middle class who lost their source of income. Some were able to find other jobs, but the case of the Hassein family is particularly complex.

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The father, Yusuf, suffered a mild stroke about three years ago that affects his daily functioning. There is no unemployment insurance, his extended family is unable to help out with either money or food, and the family is completely dependent on the WFP.

The Hasseins are not an exception in the territories. According to WFP figures, 34 percent of residents of the territories suffer from food insecurity, which the UN food agency defines as the inability of a household to produce and/or access at all times the minimum food needed for a healthy and active life. In the Gaza Strip, where four out of five Palestinians are below the poverty line, the figure is 54 percent.

"We are seeing more and more children who come to school without eating breakfast and without the ability to buy breakfast," Campbell says. "Many families can only give their children one meal a day. The problem is particularly severe in Gaza, but it occurs in the West Bank as well."

Campbell says that while in the past food shortages were generally limited to rural areas, it now affects urban residents, traders and people who own small workshops, among others.

"The Palestinian economy is becoming an 'island' economy," Campbell explains, "small areas where residents trade among themselves." The WFP defines food insecurity as income of less than $1.60 per person per day, since this is the minimum required to obtain a nutritionally adequate diet. In Gaza, many people eat nothing but tomatoes and bread. Their neighbors and relatives may try to help, but it is not enough.

Dana Hassein, 3, and Abdu, 6, observe their houseguests with suspicion. They are hesitant at first to answer the questions posed by workers for WFP, but Majidi, one of the WFP's field workers, manages to penetrate the children's shyness. They do not ask for food or a handout, and Abdu proudly announces that he is "the most diligent student in his class."

Hunger, however, lurks in every corner of their home. Here, on the northern edge of Bidiya, not far from Ariel, the Israeli claim that there is no hunger in the West Bank rings hollow. As they do every day, Abdu, Dana, their seven siblings, their mother Basma and their father Yusuf, eat only pita and hummus, morning, noon and night. Occasionally there is tehina instead. In the morning, each child drinks a cup of tea. Once a week they eat chicken or red meat.

Since 2004, Basma relates, she and her husband have been unable to afford even the most basic staples, and the children's daily diet has become monotonous. No dairy products, no fruits or vegetables, no rice or even pasta. Occasionally Basma cooks up khubeiza or other wild greens picked in the yard, but mainly they rely on the food supplied by WFP: flour, salt, cooking oil, chickpeas and tehina.

The Hasseins' home is only a few hundred meters from Bidiya's main road, formerly the Trans-Samarian Highway. Like everyone else in the region, they remember the weekends when Israelis came to Bidiya to do their shopping, leaving sufficient cash behind to support the village and its environs. Then the second intifada broke out. The Israelis stopped coming, the highway was rebuilt about two kilometers away and thousands of families were left without livelihoods.
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  1.   Hamas, stop buying weapons and feed them 08:24  |  D 04/03/07
  2.   They`ve been given billions, why`s it not buying food? 08:36  |  David Teich 04/03/07
  3.   but they can afford bombs and bullets 08:41  |  PJ 04/03/07
  4.   Food Aid 09:08  |  Fred 04/03/07
  5.   This is criminal... 09:12  |  Dutch 04/03/07
  6.   And Suha Arafat... 09:13  |  Somebody from Europe 04/03/07
  7.   Starving people, blockading them, killing them 09:14  |  SA 04/03/07
  8.   Palestinians show no signs of wanting anything better 09:14  |  redmike 04/03/07
  9.   Islamic money for nukes, not food 09:23  |  Joe Sittizen 04/03/07
  10.   When Israel left the Gaza Strip back in the Summer of 2005, the.. 09:28  |  Nadav 04/03/07
  11.   Please send food trucks and not jeeps and tanks 09:34  |  Sam 04/03/07
  12.   What goes around, comes around 09:43  |  Joe 04/03/07
  13.   Build More Kassams, Buy More Arms. 09:45  |  Terry 04/03/07
  14.   gazans 09:45  |  colin 04/03/07
  15.   They are growing veggies. Did you read the article "FRED" 09:49  |  Sam 04/03/07
  16.   There is price to pay for that ! 09:49  |  mm 04/03/07
  17.   "OH DEAR" dutchy #6 10:06  |  Joe Moer 04/03/07
  18.   ALL of you read the LAST PARAGRAPH 10:18  |  Ari ben Yisrael 04/03/07
  19.   aren`t ketushas edible? 10:21  |  don 04/03/07
  20.   chutzpah 10:21  |  Joseph 04/03/07
  21.   tosefta and shibley telhami 10:22  |  flashman 04/03/07
  22.   tosefta and polls on shalit 10:31  |  flashman 04/03/07
  23.   tosefta and his interpretation of mordechai gur 10:41  |  flashman 04/03/07
  24.   For Racist Redmike # 9 10:44  |  Clickfool 04/03/07
  25.   tosefta misleads intentionally 10:48  |  flashman 04/03/07
  26.   God, you`re ignorant, Don # 20 10:48  |  Clickfool 04/03/07
  27.   KA are you crazy? 10:50  |  Andrew 04/03/07
  28.   tosefta "the palestinians would give up on the right 10:54  |  flashman 04/03/07
  29.   #19: I READ it and it is NOT A QUOTE 10:54  |  Sam 04/03/07
  30.   to redmike no 9 / just look at 10:55  |  Tina 04/03/07
  31.   to no 8 / observe a bit better 10:58  |  Tina 04/03/07
  32.   Let them eat their guns & bombs or starve! 11:02  |  Avraham 04/03/07
  33.   an evil state like this has no right to exist 11:02  |  American 04/03/07
  34.   State of Israel, this is on your conscience 11:02  |  Ben 04/03/07
  35.   This is BEYOND indefensible! 11:04  |  Joe 04/03/07
  36.   Stop the false tears! 11:06  |  Jonathan S 04/03/07
  37.   Please send me all requests for food 11:07  |  Suha 04/03/07
  38.   I wish ... 11:07  |  PalWatch 04/03/07
  39.   tosefta and benny begin 11:08  |  flashman 04/03/07
  40.   To Avraham 11:14  |  Anne 04/03/07
  41.   80% of Gazans rely on food aid and strive toward the objective of 11:22  |  Uzi 04/03/07
  42.   It`s an exciting innovation 11:28  |  Colin Wright 04/03/07
  43.   TIME FOR REALITY STOP ALL AID TO GAZA 11:31  |  paul harris 04/03/07
  44.   #5 STARVING PEOPLE GROW THEIR OWN FOOD DORIS 11:32  |  paul harris 04/03/07
  45.   Buy FOOD not WEAPONS moronic palestinians 11:39  |  Johnny 04/03/07
  46.   to Fred no 5 / do nothing 11:41  |  tina 04/03/07
  47.   #44, Paul, and did the HOTHOUSES pay to build the HOT HOUSES? 11:49  |  Sam 04/03/07
  48.   # 5 Fred. Your support for Israel is support for extirpation. Sad 11:51  |  Nick Ferriman 04/03/07
  49.   30 sec soundbite 11:59  |  izzy d 04/03/07
  50.   to all you nutcases, think 12:02  |  VIPER 04/03/07
  51.   pals birthright 12:02  |  izzy d 04/03/07
  52.   #2 D.Teich. You`re often frank with others,how bout with yourself 12:03  |  zmogus 04/03/07
  53.   #33, american 12:07  |  VIPER 04/03/07
  54.   #47 AND THE ARABS DESTROYED THEM SAM!!!! 12:12  |  paul harris 04/03/07
  55.   348 NICK FERRIES TROUBLED WATERS AS USUALTHE BOAT 12:15  |  paul harris 04/03/07
  56.   Peace Now`s Legacy 12:16  |  Simon 04/03/07
  57.   pals brought this on themselves 12:24  |  JDM 04/03/07
  58.   #26 Clickfool: 12:30  |  Eugene 04/03/07
  59.   Well, the people of Leningrad also could have opted 12:30  |  Andreas 04/03/07
  60.   Trying to starve a nation into submission 12:46  |  Ben Alofs 04/03/07
  61.   Starving? 12:46  |  Jean-Pierre 04/03/07
  62.   #59 Andreas 12:49  |  Troll 04/03/07
  63.   CLICKFOOL 12:50  |  Jean-Pierre 04/03/07
  64.   yeah...but arming to the teeth, shooting in all 12:58  |  S 04/03/07
  65.   #59, to Andreass, brimming with sarkasm: 13:04  |  Eugene 04/03/07
  66.   ISRAEL IS GUILTY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY 13:11  |  Dutch 04/03/07
  67.   # 55 Paul Harris 13:12  |  Nick Ferriman 04/03/07
  68.   A Crime against Humanity. 13:15  |  David Nigel Braham 04/03/07
  69.   God clickfool, you`re ignorant 13:15  |  Jasmine Murphy 04/03/07
  70.   Andreas how does it feel to be on the loosing side 13:19  |  Johnny 04/03/07
  71.   Joe, stop talking through your hat 13:19  |  Jasmine Murphy 04/03/07
  72.   Israel`s colonial mentality 13:19  |  Ben Alofs 04/03/07
  73.   Harris, Get ready to become a wondering Jew again 13:30  |  Dutch 04/03/07
  74.   The same old responses from Israelis 13:44  |  Chris Linthwaite 04/03/07
  75.   Under Egypt administration GAZANS could earn their food. Why do.. 13:45  |  Vittorio 04/03/07
  76.   For Eugene # 58 13:50  |  Clickfool 04/03/07
  77.   BTW: Johnny, I used to know a Johnny from Sweden 13:52  |  Andreas 04/03/07
  78.   Jasmine Murphy would have liked Goebbels # 65 13:53  |  Clickfool 04/03/07
  79.   @34, ben, our conscience is O`K, they wantedthat way 13:54  |  vladimir 04/03/07
  80.   WHAT happened to the 86mill.Euros for immediate 13:57  |  Alicia