A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The main U.N. agency in Gaza has stopped picking up aid from a key Israeli border crossing. The agency says it's become impossible to collect aid from this crucial entry point. It blames hurdles from Israeli authorities and also a lack of safety. NPR's Aya Batrawy reports on what this means for families inside Gaza.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Hundreds of men, women and children push and shove with metal pots in hand. These are famished people whose survival relies on this single meal of kidney beans and soup provided by a local food kitchen.
AFAF ABDEL-AAL: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: Afaf Abdel-Aal has four kids, the youngest just 9 months old. She waited in the crowd for five hours, a large empty can of tomato sauce in hand, desperately trying to fill it with soup, but she didn't get any today. Close to 2 million people in Gaza don't know where their next meal will come from. Here's NPR's producer, Anas Baba, at the food kitchen.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: People here, children are crying. We saw a child that he's fainted from all of the squeezing of the people themselves.
BATRAWY: Just days ago, a woman and two teenage girls died in a crushing crowd outside the only bakery in this part of Gaza. Never has hunger been more severe in southern Gaza, where most people are displaced and facing winter without shelter after 14 months of war and Israeli airstrikes that have killed tens of thousands. It's not just food that's restricted.
CAROLINE SEGUIN: There is items that are extremely complicated to get in or even forbidden.
BATRAWY: Caroline Seguin is the emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF. She says entire truckloads of gauze, painkillers, and medicine have been rejected by Israeli authorities over a pair of medical scissors inside, even with pre-approvals for them.
SEGUIN: We would like to request a safer passage of goods, food, medical item to stop the restriction of what is entering into Gaza.
BATRAWY: Israel says restrictions are needed to keep items from falling into the hands of Hamas militants. U.N. agencies and aid groups, however, say not enough aid is entering Gaza, reaching its lowest level since the start of the war.
ABDEL-AAL: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: Abdel-Aal - the mother at the food kitchen - says she took her baby girl to an MSF clinic to treat her for malnutrition. But MSF says they don't have enough food supplements to treat the many malnourished children they see daily.
Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Dubai, with Anas Baba in Gaza.
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