The man was killed trying to find food for his family, Essi told friends and family when he shared the image, a snapshot of the tragedy and desperation in Gaza City.
Essi knew the terrible pain of not being able to feed the people you love, and it got sharper every day that he could not find milk for his two girls, five-year-old Layan and two-year-old Mila, or bread for his father.
So when he heard that a rare delivery of food aid might reach northern Gaza in the early hours of last Thursday, he made his way to the seafront AI Rashid Road with two brothers, their cousin Moataz el-Essi told the Guardian by phone from Germany.
Bilal, a football-mad 28-year-old who was quick with a joke, joined hundreds of people huddled around small fires waiting in the bitter cold for the trucks of food.
Shukri Fleifel, a 21-year-old photographer and film-maker, was also in the crowd. He had watched Israeli forces open fire on people waiting for aid trucks in the same spot just a few days earlier, he said. But like everyone else in Gaza City, he was hungry.
"There is quite literally nothing available to buy in the markets," he said in a phone interview. "People have been forced to resort to animal feed, but even that is scarce."
This story is from the March 08, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the March 08, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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