Earning a living has become a daily struggle, and hundreds of men, women and children stand in endless queues, under the scorching sun, outside the few community kitchens that serve nothing but lentil soup.
A community kitchen in western Gaza reveals a panorama of painful scenes amid displaced people suffering, their cries for help and their urgent appeals to the world, demanding an end to their tragedy and relief.
Community kitchen workers are busy preparing lentil soup while plastic bowls and empty plates are piled up behind an iron fence, waiting for a small amount that many may not be able to get a sip of.
After a bitter struggle, Ziad Al-Ghariz, an elderly displaced person from Gaza, managed to obtain a cup of lentil soup. He sat on the floor and began to take slow sips. He told UN News that he had not tasted bread for 10 consecutive days.
‘We are dying of hunger here’
“I eat the lentil soup distributed by the community kitchen,” he said. “I cannot afford flour at all. I do not have the money for it, so I try to get whatever the kitchen distributes. The people of Gaza are hungry.”
Young Mohammed Nayfeh says he spent four hours waiting for a meal for his family.
“I’ve been standing here for four hours, and I can’t get any food in the crowds and the sun,” he said. “We’re dying. We need support. We need food and drink. Where is the world? We’re dying here of hunger. Every day we eat only lentils. There’s no flour, no food, no drink. We’re dying of hunger.”
A group of displaced Palestinians gathering in front of a local community kitchen in western Gaza City.
Burn in the sun or get trampled
“Either we burn in the sun or we are trampled underfoot”
Umm Muhammad, a displaced person from the Shujaiya neighborhood, described the macabre scene around her.
“There is no water, no food, no bread,” she said. “The bitterness of the situation forces us to come here. In the end, we return with nothing. We either return burned under the sun or trampled underfoot due to overcrowding, and we return empty-handed. And no one listens.”
Hussam al-Qamari, who was also displaced from Shujaiya, said the situation is no longer acceptable.
“We are dying, and our children are starving to death,” she said. “So much is happening to the people of Gaza. Much of what is happening is unacceptable. An old man like me has been standing here since morning, carrying a bowl for his children to eat breakfast, and they still haven’t eaten.”
Um Muhammad, who fled from the Shujaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City to its western areas, waits to get food.
From classrooms to queues for lentils
According to the latest findings from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), one in five children in Gaza City suffers from malnutrition, with cases increasing daily.
The image of this little girl standing behind an iron fence, holding her empty bowl waiting for a little lentil soup, encapsulates this horrific tragedy, for which children pay the heaviest price.
Bassam Abu Odeh, a displaced person from Beit Hanoun, made an appeal.
“We call on all the free people of the world and peace lovers to help us provide food and water until this famine imposed on us by the occupation ends. The trucks allowed into the area by the occupation are not even a drop in the ocean of needs. We have no one, but God.”
A young girl from Gaza waiting to fill her container with lentils.
‘Food is not enough’
Umm Rami, a displaced person from the Zeitoun neighborhood, said the necessities of life are lacking in Gaza, calling on the world to look at the people of the Strip with compassion.
“I came here to get a small amount of food to feed my children. “This is our reality now: we come to community kitchens for food, having once lived with dignity and respect in our own homes.”
She said food is not enough.
“We have reached a point where we stand in lines for food and water. As you can see, the lives of children now revolve around the lines for water and food. Food is not enough. We have only God. The world must look at us, and everyone must awaken their consciences.”
Undeniable risk of famine
According to a warning issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Gaza is facing a severe risk of famine, as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the beginning of the current conflict.
The alert highlights that two of the three famine thresholds have been observed in parts of the Gaza Strip, with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warning that time is running out to launch a comprehensive humanitarian response.
The UN Secretary-General said the alert confirms that Gaza is on the brink of famine. He said the facts are undeniable, and that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.
“This is not a warning, but a reality unfolding before our eyes,” he said.
He stressed the need for the aid trickle to become an “ocean”, with food, water, medicine and fuel flowing without hindrance.
“This nightmare must end,” he declared.
Death in search of food
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that days after the start of the tactical pauses announced by the Israeli authorities in Gaza, “we continue to witness casualties among those seeking assistance and more deaths from hunger and malnutrition.”
The UN office said that parents continue to struggle to save their starving children. Desperate and hungry people continue to unload small amounts of aid from trucks that manage to exit the crossings.
Although the UN and its partners are taking advantage of every opportunity to support those in need during unilateral tactical pauses, conditions for delivering aid and supplies are far from adequate, according to OCHA.
