This footage was filmed and produced 8 February 2024.

Due to a severe shortage of wheat, a mill in Gaza is using bird feed and other grains to make flour.

The owner of the mill, Mohamed Khalidy, started the project at a former clothes factory due to the need for people to grind grains such as wheat and corn, but soon, due to the shortages, people started bringing animal feed to stretch the flour.
Khalidy said, “one of the most prominent obstacles is that there is no wheat to be ground now, and we are now on the verge of famine. If no wheat, aid, or flour is brought in, we are on the verge of famine.”

The price of fuel has been another obstacle in running the mill.

Khalidy said, “we're working on diesel. If it is available in the black market, a 20-litre tank is sold for 600 shekels, which is approximately thirty shekels per litre. The international price is less than one dollar, but here in Gaza, the price of one litre is more than ten dollars.”

He said, “if diesel and flour are not brought in, the mills will stop working, and there will be not an iota of flour for people to eat and overcome their hunger. As adults, we are aware of this famine, but children are unaware of this famine. Children are starving, they are squirming in hunger, and we are seeing cases only God knows about.”

Abdul Majeed Salman, a displaced person from Jabalia Camp brings whatever grains he can find to the mill for his wife to be able to bake bread.

Salman said, “I came to grind wheat and corn to bake because there is no flour. I mean, if I find flour today, it is expensive. The price of a supply bag is 700 shekels, which used to be thirty. We grind wheat, barley, and corn.”

He said, “we are forced to do this, as there is no alternative. This is food for birds and animals, may God bless you, but this is the only alternative. There is no other alternative.”

Salman continued, “everything is expensive, and there are no jobs and no way for one to work to earn money. Prices are skyrocketing. You find if you are going to buy a kilo of potatoes, it’s for 25 shekels. Tomatoes are the same. The price of a can of fava beans has risen from two shekels to 9 shekels.”

He said, “we started eating one meal a day because we don’t have enough to go on. Everything is so expensive.”

[NOTE: speech in Palestinian Arabic]