Gaza residents resort to animal feed as Israeli siege causes hunger crisis

As the plight of Palestinians in Gaza is worsening day after day under the devastating Israeli onslaught, #GazaStarving is trending on social media platforms with videos showing hungry people eating animal food and animals nibbling decomposed human bodies lying on streets.

Only in a matter of few days, the hashtag - #GazaStarving - is almost nearing 5 million interactions on X platform, while on other social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok, the hashtag is also broadly used to highlight the looming famine and Palestinian suffering.

#GazaStarving spotlights the growing fear of famine in Gaza, as reports began to surface on social media showing Palestinians grinding animal fodder due to a lack of wheat and bread.

Several videos showed hungry Palestinians eating animal food, while cats and dogs nibbled the human bodies lying on streets.

The Israeli army's inhumane actions continue, disres pecting unburied decomposed bodies of Palestinians in the southern Khan Younis city, and preventing people from collecting them from the rubble, eyewitnesses told Anadolu on Wednesday.

Eyewitnesses said some Palestinians returned to the areas from where Israeli forces had withdrawn to find the bodies of their loved ones, including children and women, who were attempting to flee from the city of Khan Younis to Rafah in the far south but were targeted by Israeli tanks.

Bread made of fodder

They said ambulances transported some of these bodies to the Nasser Medical Complex in the city centre, but when Israeli tanks opened fire on everyone in the area, the paramedics were forced to flee.

Some of the bodies have begun to decompose, and parts have been eaten by cats and dogs, they said.

Several videos that used the hashtag showed Palestinians eating bread made of fodder.

According to an Anadolu reporter in northern Gaza, it was observed that the animal fodder was being sold in northern Gaza markets for human consumption as wheat flour was in short supply.

The UN had warned that 2.2 million people in Gaza, under intense Israeli attacks, are at risk of famine.

While Israel allows few humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza, these trucks are mainly distributed in the southern areas of Gaza, while the northern Gaza areas remain deprived due to Israeli siege.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7, killing at least 25,700 Palestinians and injuring 63,740. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.