KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip – Screaming in anguish as the desperate crowd crushes them against a barrier, young children and adults frantically wave pots and pans at charity workers, begging for a portion of some of the last food aid left in Gaza: Rice.

The chaos at the community kitchen in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Friday was too overwhelming for Niveen Abu Arar. She tried and tried, but the 33-year-old mother of eight didn’t get to the front of the crowd in time. She left with her pot empty, and her eyes full of tears.

“Until when will life be like that? We’re slowly dying. We haven’t eaten bread for a month and a half. There is no flour. There is nothing,” said Abu Arar, whose ninth child, a 1-year-old boy, was killed in an Israeli strike near their home at the start of the war in 2023. “We don’t know what to do … We don’t have money. What do we get for them?”

She cradled a toddler in her lap as she spoke. With no milk to provide, she poured water into a baby bottle and pressed it into her youngest daughter’s mouth, hoping to stave off the baby’s hunger pangs.

With Israel blocking any form of aid — including food and medicine – into Gaza for the past two months, aid groups have warned that Gaza’s civilian population is facing starvation.

Israel has said that the blockade and its renewed military campaign aim to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages it still holds and to disarm. Aid groups stress that blocking humanitarian aid is a form of collective punishment and a violation of international law.

Israeli authorities didn’t immediately respond when asked about accusations that starvation was being used as a weapon of war, but in the past they have accused the Hamas militant group governing Gaza of stealing aid.

In an emergency call with reporters on Friday to discuss Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, aid groups described a territory nearly out of food, water and fuel, with prices for the meager supplies remaining skyrocketing beyond the reach of many.

With nearly the entire population reliant on humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations, warehouses are empty, community kitchens are closing down, and families are skipping meals.

A 25-kilogram (55-pound) bag of flour now goes for 1,300 shekels ($360), said Ghada al Haddad, Oxfam’s media coordinator in Gaza.

“Mothers in Gaza now feed their children one meal per day, dinner, so they don’t wake up and complain they are starving,” she said.

Amjad Shawwa, the director of the Palestinian NGO network, said that more than 70 of their community kitchens inside Gaza would close within the week if the Israeli blockade continues.

Israeli airstrikes have also taken out large swaths of Gaza’s agricultural land and livestock, making it nearly impossible for the territory to produce its own food, said Gavin Kelleher, a humanitarian manager with the Norwegian Refugee Council who recently left Gaza. Even fisherman have been targeted, he said, killed in small fishing boats by Israeli naval forces.

“Israel has engineered a situation where Palestinians cannot grow their own food or fish for their own food,” he said.

Kelleher, whose organization coordinates the provision of shelter to Gaza, said that not a single aid group has any tents left to distribute — as 1 million people inside Gaza remain in need of shelter given the devastation caused by the nearly 19-month war.

In Khan Younis, Mustafa Ashour said he had walked for an hour to get to the charity community kitchen, and waiting for another two hours before he managed to get food.

“The situation is hard in Gaza. The crossings are closed. It’s a full siege,” said Ashour, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah. “There is no food. There is no water. There are no life necessities. The food being sold is expensive and very little.”

As for Abu Arar and her family — left without a handout from the charity kitchen — another family in a neighboring tent took pity, and shared their own meager portions of rice.

Keller of the NRC said that if Israel continues its blockade, “thousands of people will die, there will be a complete breakdown of order, telecommunication networks will come down and we will struggle to understand the situation because it will be unfolding in the dark.”

AP

NEW YORK, May 1, 2025 – The UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator strongly warned today about the continuing Israeli blockade of aid into Gaza, calling on Israel to lift restrictions that have left civilians without food, medical care, and hope.

In a press statement on Thursday, Tom Fletcher condemned Israel’s decision to halt humanitarian assistance as a “cruel collective punishment” of the Palestinian population.

The UN relief chief stressed that “international law is unequivocal: As the occupying power, Israel must allow humanitarian support in… Aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip,” he added. “Blocking aid kills.”

Fletcher warned that the aid blockade “starves civilians”, denies them basic medical services, and “strips them of dignity and hope.”

He underscored the neutrality and impartiality of humanitarian efforts, adding: “We believe that all civilians are equally worthy of protection. We remain ready to save as many lives as we can, despite the risks.”

However, the latest delivery mechanism proposed by Israel, he said, “does not meet the minimum bar for principled humanitarian support.”

“To the Israeli authorities, and those who can still reason with them, we say again: lift this brutal blockade. Let humanitarians save lives,” he pleaded.

Addressing civilians in Gaza, Fletcher said: “No apology can suffice… But I am truly sorry that we are unable to move the international community to prevent this injustice. We won’t give up.”

WAFA

KHAN YOUNIS – For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other item has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel. Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare. Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.

In the sprawling tent camp outside the southern city of Khan Younis, Mariam Al-Najjar and her mother-in-law emptied four cans of peas and carrots into a pot and boiled it over a wood fire. They added a little bouillon and spices.

That, with a plate of rice, was the sole meal on Friday for the 11 members of their family, including six children.

Among Palestinians, “Fridays are sacred,” a day for large family meals of meat, stuffed vegetables or other rich traditional dishes, Al-Najjar said.
“Now we eat peas and rice,” she said.

“We never ate canned peas before the war. Only in this war that has destroyed our lives.”

The around 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are now mainly living off canned vegetables, rice, pasta and lentils.

Meat, milk, cheese and fruit have disappeared. Bread and eggs are scarce. The few vegetables or other items in the market have skyrocketed in price, unaffordable for most.

“We can’t get anything that provides any protein or nutrients,” Al-Najjar said.

Beans, peas and bread dunked in tea

Israel imposed the blockade on March 2, then shattered a two-month ceasefire by resuming military operations March 18. It said both steps aim to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages. Rights groups call the blockade a “starvation tactic” endangering the entire population and a potential war crime.

Item by item, foods have disappeared, Al-Najjar said.

When meat became unavailable, she got canned sardines. Those are gone.

They used to receive cartons of milk from the UN That ended weeks ago.

Once a week, she used to buy tomatoes to give her children a salad. Now she can’t afford tomatoes.

Now, they are on a routine of cans of beans or peas and carrots, she said.

When they can’t find that, they get lentils or pasta from a charity kitchen.

If she finds bread or sugar, she gives her kids bread dunked in tea to stave off their hunger, she said.

“I’m afraid my son’s children will die of hunger,” said Mariam’s mother-in-law Sumaya Al-Najjar. The 61-year-old said she and her husband have cancer; she has stopped taking her medication because its unobtainable, and her husband is being treated in a hospital.

Mariam worries how she’ll feed her children when what’s left in Gaza runs out.

“Maybe we’ll eat sand,” she said.

Malnutrition hitting children at a key time in their development

Doctors warn that the lack of variety, protein and other nutrients in children’s diet will cause long-term damage to their health.

Dr. Ayman Abu Teir, head of the Therapeutic Feeding department at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, said the number of malnutrition cases has “increased in a very substantial way.”

Specialized milk for them has run out, he said. The UN said it identified 3,700 children suffering from acute malnutrition in March, up 80 percent from February.

“Children need the food pyramid for their development,” Abu Teir said: meat, eggs, fish and dairy for their growth, fruits and vegetables to build their immune systems.

“These do not exist in Gaza,” he said.

He said a 1-year-old child weighing 10 kilos (22 pounds) needs about 700 calories a day.

The four cans of peas and carrots in the Al-Najjars’ Friday meal totaled about 1,000 calories, according to label information — not counting the rice they also ate – split among 11 people, including six children between the ages of 6 and 14.

Israel has previously said Gaza had enough aid after a surge in distribution during the ceasefire., and it accuses Hamas of diverting aid for its purposes. Humanitarian workers deny there is significant diversion, saying the UN strictly monitors distribution.

On a recent day in a Khan Younis street market, most stalls were empty. Those open displayed small piles of tomatoes, cucumbers, shriveled eggplants and onions.

One had a few dented cans of beans and peas. At one of the few working grocery stores, the shelves were bare except for one with bags of pasta.

Tomatoes sell for 50 shekels a kilo, almost $14, compared to less than a dollar before the war.

“I dream of eating a tomato,” said Khalil Al-Faqawi, standing in front of the empty stalls.

He said he has nine people to feed.

“The children ask for meat, for chicken, for a cookie. We can’t provide it,” he said.

“Forget about meat. We’ve got lentils. Great. Thank you very much. What happens when the lentils run out?”

The only vegetables are those grown in Gaza. Israeli troops have destroyed the vast majority of the territory’s farmland and greenhouses or closed them off within military zones where anyone approaching risks being shot.

The remaining farms’ production has fallen for lack of water and supplies.

Mahmoud Al-Shaer said his greenhouses yield at most 150 kilos (330 pounds) of tomatoes a week compared to 600 kilos (1,300 pounds) before the war.

Even that can’t be sustained, he said.

“In two weeks or a month, you won’t find any at all.”

Israel has leveled much of Gaza with its air and ground campaign. It has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Almost the entire population has been driven from their homes. Hundreds of thousands live in tent camps.

In Khan Younis, children mobbed the Rafah Charity Kitchen, holding out metal pots. Workers ladled boiled lentils into each one.

Such kitchens are the only alternative to the market. Other food programs shut down under the blockade.

The kitchens also face closure. The World Food Program said Friday it delivered its last food stocks to the 47 kitchens it supports — the biggest in Gaza — which it said will run out of meals to serve within days.

Kitchens can provide only lentils or plain pasta and rice. Hani Abu Qasim, at the Rafah Charity Kitchen, said they have reduced portion size as well.

“These people who depend on us are threatened with starvation if this kitchen closes,” Abu Qasim said.

AN-AP

GENEVA/CAIRO – The World Food Programme said on Friday it had run out of food stocks in Gaza due to the sustained closure of crossings into the enclave, while Gaza authorities said Israeli airstrikes had killed at least 78 people in the past 24 hours.
“The WFP has depleted all its food stocks for families in Gaza,” a WFP statement said, adding the U.N. agency on Friday delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in Gaza.

“These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days,” it added.

The agency said no humanitarian or commercial supplies had entered Gaza for more than seven weeks as all main border crossing points remained closed, resulting in the longest closure the Gaza Strip had ever faced.

Israel has previously denied that Gaza is facing a hunger crisis. The military accuses the Hamas militants who have run Gaza of exploiting aid – which Hamas denies – and says it must keep all supplies out to prevent the fighters from getting it.

Since March 2, Israel completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, and food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out.

WFP warned that if the aid blockage was not lifted it might be forced to end its critical assistance.

On March 31, all 25 WFP-supported bakeries closed after wheat flour and cooking fuel ran out, while parcels giving families two weeks of food rations were depleted.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office on Friday said that famine is no longer a looming threat and is becoming a reality.

“Thousands of Palestinian families are now facing starvation after becoming unable to provide even a single meal for their children,” it said in a statement.

Fifty-two people have died due to hunger and malnutrition, including 50 children, while more than one million children are experiencing hunger daily, it added.

The Israeli ministry of foreign affairs said 25,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the 42 days of the ceasefire – before it shut the border at the start of March – and that Hamas had used the aid to rebuild its war machine.

Food prices have risen 1,400 percent compared to during the ceasefire, WFP said, adding that more than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance which could feed one million people for up to four months is currently stuck at the border crossing.

STRIKES IN GAZA

On Friday, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 78 people in different areas of the enclave in the past 24 hours.

Residents said Israeli forces operating in Shejaia and Rafah in northern and southern Gaza blew up clusters of homes overnight.

Citing attacks initiated from those areas, the Israeli military ordered residents of Beit Hanoun and the Beit Lahiya towns to leave their homes in a post published on X by an army spokesperson late on Thursday.

The new orders caused a new wave of displacement as many families began leaving their homes in the early hours on Friday, according to witnesses.

Sources familiar with the mediation said a Hamas delegation was expected to visit Cairo on Friday to meet Egyptian officials and discuss ways to salvage stalled ceasefire talks.

Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone.

An attack on Israel by Hamas in October 2023 killed 1,200 people, and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza. Since then, more than 51,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to health officials.

REUTERS

GAZA – Every morning, long before the sun rises over the horizon, Salim Abu Rayala, a Palestinian fisherman from Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, unties his weathered wooden boat and pushes it into the waters of the Mediterranean.

Abu Rayala understands all too well the sea’s dual nature — its potential to provide a good catch and its capacity to take his life. However, the father of eight has had no other choice. “I must struggle for my family,” he said.

At 55, the man has spent over three decades fishing for sardines, mullets, and sea bream along Gaza’s coastline. But since the onset of the Israeli war against the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the sea has morphed into a place of peril, despair, and dwindling prospects.

“I still go out every day, even if I catch nothing,” Abu Rayala said. “Some days, I sail just far enough to wet my nets before returning empty-handed. I risk my life for nothing, but what choice do I have?”

With Israel’s strict restrictions on access to Gaza’s fishing waters, local fishermen face constant threats of gunfire, harassment, and arrest if they stray beyond the established boundary.

“Sometimes, they (Israeli troops) shoot in the air. Other times, they target the boat engine,” Abu Rayala recounted. “I’ve seen friends wounded and boats destroyed. But we persist – we have families to feed.”

As the Israeli offensive continues, the fishing industry is on the verge of total collapse, facing challenges such as fuel shortages and a lack of spare parts.

“I used to bring fish home for dinner. Now, I sell whatever I catch just to buy rice, oil, and vegetables. It is no longer about nourishing my family — it’s about survival,” Abu Rayala said.

Each kilogram of fish is sold at 30 U.S. dollars. “The price is much higher compared to the pre-war level, but I still cannot make a living,” he lamented.

Across Gaza’s coastal neighborhoods, similar scenes unfold daily. Thousands of fishermen have been displaced or have lost their jobs. Many have resorted to alternative means of livelihood, even trading their fishing gear for wheelbarrows or collecting firewood from bombed-out buildings.

Ahed Baker, another fisherman in Al-Shati refugee camp, is patching a net. His small boat has remained out of the water for five weeks. “Fuel is too expensive, and I don’t even have bait,” he told Xinhua.

“The sea once was our lifeline. Now it is blocked, broken, and fraught with danger,” he said. “There is nothing else left for us. The land is dry. The sky rains bombs. And even though the sea is empty, it remains the only place I truly know how to navigate.”

XINHUA