Famine looms as dozens of Gaza communal kitchens shut as supplies run out

Dozens of community kitchens in Gaza shut their doors yesterday due to a lack of supplies, closing off a lifeline used by hundreds of thousands of people in a further blow to efforts to combat growing hunger in the enclave, according to Reuters.

This came after the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity announced that it had run out of the ingredients necessary to provide much-needed free meals and had been prevented by Israel from bringing in aid.

Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations Network (PNGO) in Gaza, said that most of the enclave’s 170 community kitchens had shut down after running out of stock due to Israel’s continued blockade on Gaza.

Al-Shawa said the decision by the WCK, announced late on Wednesday, and the closure of community kitchens yesterday would cause a drop of between 400,000 to 500,000 free meals per day for the 2.3 million population.

“Everyone in Gaza today is hungry. The world must act now to save the people here,” said Al-Shawa.

“The remaining kitchens will be closing soon. The hunger catastrophe is beyond words. People are losing their lone source of food,” he added.

Those Gazans trying to cook independently meanwhile complain that flour still available on the market is contaminated.

“The flour is full of mites and sand … We sieve it three, four times, instead of once, so we can bake it,” said Mohammad Abu Ayesh, a displaced father of nine from northern Gaza.

“We don’t want to eat from it, but we feed the children, for the children. You can’t tolerate its smell, cattle and animals would not eat it, we are forced to eat it against our will, we are helpless,” he said.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Health said Israeli military strikes across the enclave killed at least 105 people in the past 24 hours, in one of the biggest death tolls in a single day in two months. It added that more than 52,700 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since it launched its genocidal war on 7 October 2023.

Israel imposed a complete blockade on Gaza on 2 March, banning the entry of food, water, medicines and fuel into the enclave. The occupation state had already limited – and at times completely blocked – the amount of vital aid entering the Strip since it launched its bombing campaign in October 2023.

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‘We will die of hunger’

In Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian woman Huda Abu Diyya has just returned from a visit to a community kitchen where she received what the owners told her would be her family’s last meal.

“If it weren’t for the community kitchen, we would have died. For the sake of our children, what shall we do? … What should I feed them tomorrow?” she said.

“Nothing is available here. Everything became so expensive, we have nothing here. The situation is below zero. A bit more like this and we will die of hunger,” she added.

Two weeks ago most of the population relied on one and a half meals per day, but in the past few days that has dropped to one meal a day, and even that will lack meat, vegetables or the necessary healthy components, said Al-Shawa.

“The free meals are usually rice or lentils, that is now also at risk of being suspended within the next week. I am afraid that we may begin to witness deaths among elderly, vulnerable children, pregnant women and the ill,” said Al-Shawa.

UN humanitarian agency OCHA has said more than two million people – most of Gaza’s population – face severe food shortages. Food has dried up in Gaza markets, and prices have risen beyond the means of the vast majority. Flour sells at around $500 for a 25 kilogramme (55 lb) sack, compared with $7 in the past.