I went to the barracks in Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp, the one which the crowd has stormed. The people gathered there to collect a bag of flour. I kept asking here and there people I passed by, “Are you selling the bag?” One man answered, “I could barely believe I got it; this is my soul. A second one said, “I need to feed my children; we haven’t had bread in months.”
On the way, I saw a boy carrying a bag of flour, shouting at the top of his lungs: “Goodbye, macaroni!” Then I found a woman dragging her bag on a bicycle. I asked her how much she had paid for it. She replied: “I got it from the warehouse while I was hardly breathing”.
We are not savage. We are not beasts. We are human beings who are starved to death. We haven’t eaten bread in ages. We haven’t seen meat in months. We buy some vegetables for high prices. Yes, there are among us thieves and looters who steal goods and sell it with high profit. However, many went simply there to buy a bag of flour for a cheaper price than the market.
I have seen elderly women making their way out of the warehouse through the crowd with empty hands. They put their lives at danger to bring something for those they support back home.
Where were we, and where are we now! I have not picked up my phone to record a video or take a picture for this is not us. This is not who we are. People are just hungry and want to eat, and we have reached a point where we fight with each other over a piece of bread. There is no one convincing justification for what is happening to us. No human being on this planet can understand what we have become.
For God’s sake, stop the war. Allow food in. For God’s sake.
We shall never forgive whoever caused all this. Never. We won’t forgive those who watched us collapsing, whether they are from us or strangers.
Mohammed Haniyeh
29/5/2025
