When Reham Alkahlout, a mother of four, scours the markets in Al-Nasr, Gaza, she is gripped by a gnawing anxiety spurred by rows of scarce stalls, the acrid scent of burnt wood and plastic, and a scattering of overpriced essentials—if any are available at all.
Once vibrant with produce and daily bustle, markets have been hollowed out by months of siege, bombardment, and economic collapse. Since Israeli forces resumed offensive operations on March 18, the price of flour has climbed by 5,000 percent, residents say, and cooking oil by 1,200 percent.
“No one can afford to buy,” says Alkahlout, 33, a psychological counselor working at a school housing the displaced. “Sometimes we are forced to purchase small amounts just to feed our children.”
Famine, which has loomed over the enclave for much of the 19-month war, is now imminent, according to international aid groups. The groups, led by the U.N., base their assessment on a complex formula known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. The most recent report, released May 12, found the whole of Gaza qualified as an “Emergency,” or at critical risk of famine. Some 470,000 residents (22 percent) had reached “Catastrophe,” defined as “starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels.”
Food prices tell the same story of scarcity. Residents of Gaza’s north say a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice that cost $3 in February is now $10. A cucumber costs 7 times more. Baby formula has quadrupled and the price of a can of peas is up 1,000 percent. Some items, like fruit and chicken, simply cannot be obtained.
Israel controls what enters the Strip, and imposed a total blockade on aid on March 2 with the collapse of a two-month ceasefire. The New York Times reported on May 13 that specialists in the Israeli military share the assessment of aid groups that starvation has become an immediate danger.
“ The first symptom of hunger is pain,” says Dr. John Kahler, who worked in Gaza last year as co-founder of MedGlobal, a Chicago-based NGO that provides emergency response and health programs to vulnerable communities. “And that pain doesn’t go away. It isn’t like it gets better or you forget it.”
Civilians interviewed by TIME from Gaza described an increasingly desperate search for basic necessities. Alwaheidi, who resides in Sheikh Redwan near Gaza City, fears the possibility that, any day now, she may be unable to provide for her children. Nineteen months of war, triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks that killed approximately 1,200 people inside Israel and took some 250 captive, has resulted in over 50,000 Palestinian deaths and the destruction of much of Gaza—including the systems that fed residents during previous wars.
Collapse of Communal Kitchens
Community kitchens in Gaza, once a critical safety net for thousands of families, have been decimated. The communal spaces offer a hub for volunteers to prepare and distribute free meals, but only a fraction remain operational, leaving massive gaps in emergency food provision.
With cooking gas prices increasing by 2,400% and flour by over 5,600%, according to residents, the facilities can no longer prepare food at scale. “The whole concept of community kitchens that we started during the war is almost entirely going to shut down because there are no supplies anymore,” says Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). “The prices of everything have increased massively.”
World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nonprofit that provides meals to communities impacted by disasters and humanitarian crises, on May 7 announced it was forced to halt cooking in Gaza. “The borders need to open for World Central Kitchen to be able to feed people in need,” said WCK Gaza response director Wadhah Hubaishi. “If given full access to our infrastructure, partnerships, and incoming supplies, we are capable of providing hungry families in Gaza with 500,000 meals a day.”
Looting
Thousands of aid trucks wait at the Gaza border, blocked by Israel, which maintains that Hamas—governing the enclave since its 2007 election win—is diverting much of the aid. “During the war, Israel allowed humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, and facilitated it,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in a statement. “But Hamas stole that aid from the people and earned its money from it.”
Residents say they fear looting, which tends to worsen with shortages.
“About a week ago, vegetable shops in the Al-Nasr, Al-Shati, and Sheikh Radwan areas were robbed,” says Reham Alkahlout, a mother and resident of Al-Nasr, also in Gaza’s north. “How can a family breadwinner meet the family’s needs when there is no monthly income? Some people resort to theft,” she says. The Associated Press reported that both armed groups and civilians have participated in looting aid warehouses and shops in northern Gaza. Hamas has acknowledged executing individuals accused of looting and announced a 5,000-member force to combat armed criminals.
UNRWA’s main complex in Gaza has been targeted by looters, as have markets and community kitchens. “We’ve seen individual looters. We’ve also seen organized crime, and we’ve lost quite a lot of aid that was taken by the looters,” says Touma, the spokesperson. “At the same time, when the ceasefire started and we started seeing more aid coming in, the looting decreased significantly.”
The Maternal and Child Health Crisis
The impact of Gaza’s food shortages falls with particular severity on pregnant women and children. Since the aid blockade began in March, 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry.
A malnourished mother struggles to produce nutritious breast milk. Their diets are extremely limited, consisting mainly of whatever sparse rations they can obtain, often lacking the “very, very specific protein and micronutrients and vitamins for their children to thrive,” says Kahler of MedGlobal, which has two nutrition centers still open, supplying caloric dense food to infants to mothers. “Most of these surviving women and children haven’t had a real night’s sleep in over 18 months. The accumulated effects of sleep deprivation on decision making and metabolic disease are enormous.”
The same reality confronts every family. “We go to sleep every day fearing that we will lose a member of our family,” says Alwaheidi. “And we do not know how long we will be able to provide food for our children.”
The post $25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza appeared first on TIME.
