Once the shell has been removed, the meat is cut up, boiled and cooked in a mix of onion, pepper, tomato and spices.
"The children were afraid of the turtle, and we told them it tasted as delicious as veal," said Majida Qanan, keeping an eye on the chunks of red meat simmering in a pot over a wood fire.
"Some of them ate it, but others refused."
For lack of a better alternative, this is the third time 61-year-old Qanan has prepared a turtle-based meal for her family, who were displaced and now live in a tent in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza largest city.
A partial view shows tents housing displaced Palestinians in the campus of the Islamic University in Gaza City. AFP
After 18 months of devastating war and an Israeli blockade, the United Nations has warned of a dire humanitarian situation for the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Palestinian territory.
The blockade, renewed by Israel in early March and now lasting six weeks—the longest stretch since the war began—has further deepened the crisis, with at least 22,000 patients needing treatment abroad unable to travel, 12,500 cancer patients at risk, and 350,000 chronic patients denied essential medication.
At the same time, more than 2 million people have been displaced, with Israeli attacks targeting 232 shelters and displacement centres, leaving over 111,000 tents uninhabitable. Meanwhile, more than 2,300 bodies have been taken from cemeteries, and the destruction of 3,700km of roads has further isolated the territory.
As such, Hamas has urged the international community to exert immediate pressure to end Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been in place since 2 March. The appeal on Friday comes as the United Nations warned that Gaza is facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began in October 2023.
People walk past a puddle of water by tent shelters erected near the rubble of a collapsed building in the Nasr neighbourhood in western Gaza City. AFP
The heads of 12 major aid organisations warned on Thursday that "famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts" of the territory.
"There are no open crossings and there is nothing in the market," said Qanan.
"When I buy two small bags (of vegetables) for 80 shekels ($22), there is no meat," she added.
Sea turtles are internationally protected as an endangered species, but those caught in Gaza fishermen's nets are used for food.
Qanan mixes the meat with flour and vinegar to wash it, before rinsing and boiling it in an old metal pot.
'Never expected to eat a turtle'
"We never expected to eat a turtle," fisherman Abdel Halim Qanan said.
"When the war started, there was a food shortage. There is no food. So, (turtle meat) is an alternative for other sources of protein. There is no meat, poultry or vegetables."
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that the Strip is facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the Israeli war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.
In a statement, OCHA confirmed that no supplies had reached Gaza for a month and a half, with medical supplies, fuel, water, and other essentials in short supply.
Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said on Wednesday that the country would continue preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, without addressing the resulting mass starvation and collective punishment of Gaza's inhabitants.
Fighting has raged in Gaza since then, pausing only twice -- recently during a two-month ceasefire between January 19 and March 17, and in a previous one-week halt in late November 2023.
The World Health Organization's regional chief, Hanan Balkhy, said in June that some Gazans were so desperate that they were eating animal food, grass, and drinking sewage water.
Hamas on Thursday accused Israel of using "starvation as a weapon" against Gazans by blocking aid supplies.
Fisherman Qanan said the turtles were killed in the "halal" method, in accordance with Islamic rites.
"If there was no famine, we would not eat it and leave it, but we want to compensate for the lack of protein," he said.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online
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