[Today’s Prayer] Gaza residents run out of food… Boil weeds and eat turtles

As the war in the Gaza Strip has continued for over a year and seven months, farmland and livestock have been destroyed, fishing has been banned, and the Israeli military has continued to block the inflow of relief supplies into the region for two months, causing food to run out.

Because of this, residents are forced to boil weeds and eat wild animals, the British daily Financial Times (FT) reported in an article from Beirut on the 10th (local time).

Waziye Hamad has been a fisherman for more than 40 years, but these days he finds food on land rather than the sea.

They kill horses and eat them, catch wild rabbits and eat them, and boil and eat weeds that have grown. These days, they even catch and eat small turtles that they see on the coast.

When the war broke out, Gaza's ports were bombed and more than 1,000 ships, including Hamad's fishing boats, were lost.

The shallow waters off the coast are filled with trash and medical waste.

Fishing in the ocean is prohibited, but with a family of 22 to feed, Hamad carefully fishes closer to shore using a raft he made from a disassembled refrigerator filled with Styrofoam insulation.

Only small fish are caught along the coast, but they do not go further than 100 meters.

According to the UN, five farmers and one fisherman were killed and five fishermen injured on the Gaza coast in the first week of May alone.

"We may die, but we have no choice but to go out to sea because we cannot find food," Hamad said.

Sometimes, dolphins that get caught in nets are slaughtered and eaten.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Israeli forces have virtually wiped out livestock in the Gaza Strip.

In addition, due to Israeli bombing and land seizures, most of the agricultural land that covers 40% of the Gaza Strip and provides almost half of the country’s agricultural production has become unsuitable for farming. The FT reported that as of March 2025, more than 80% of Gaza’s agricultural land had been destroyed.

Moreover, with Israel announcing last week an expansion of its military operations in the Gaza Strip, arable land is expected to shrink further.

Source: News

Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered. (Psalm 60:5)

As the war between Israel and Gaza continues to rage, destroying farmland and grazing land and making it difficult to bring aid into Gaza, we hear from Gazans who are forced to boil weeds and hunt wildlife.

We hear of fishermen who have been injured or killed because the war has destroyed Gaza's harbor, forcing them to make a living hunting wildlife on land and risking death to get to shore.

God, we pray that you will have compassion on the people of Gaza who risk their lives to find food, so that your mercy and the gospel of life may flow among the poor souls of Gaza.

Fill the people of Gaza with food from Your right hand as they suffer from physical hunger, and pour Your Holy Spirit into their thirsty souls in abundance!

May You answer the groaning of the people of Gaza, whom You love, and by Your grace open the way for spirit and flesh to live and come to the salvation of the cross of Jesus Christ!

May the people of Israel and Gaza be reconciled to each other through the love of the cross of Jesus Christ, which has forgiven the sins of the world.

May the war between Israel and Gaza end soon, and may the people of Israel and Palestine be transformed into a nation of Israelis and Palestinians united for Your kingdom and righteousness in obedience to Your Word!

May the Church of Israel and the global church help Gaza with their concern and prayers! May the Church of Israel and the global church serve the people of Gaza with the love of the cross, with relief supplies, and with commitment, so that the doors of life may be opened to the people of Gaza and the fountains of your life may overflow in the midst of Gaza!

May the Palestinian Church be restored to faith and rise up with the Church in Israel as a leadership in the administration of Your kingdom, forgiving the pain of the people!

Let death and suffering be removed from Gaza and the season of Christ come, so that the Palestinian people will rise up to worship You, the King of kings!

Send missionaries to Palestine who will wholeheartedly fulfill the final revival!

Rise up Palestine to bear Your work in the times of the Gentiles!