Gaza’s Last Lifeline: Kitchens Struggle as Food Supplies Dwindle

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Gaza’s Last Lifeline: Kitchens Struggle as Food Supplies Dwindle

 

In the embattled Gaza Strip, a simple hot meal has become a rare and precious commodity. In the southern city of Khan Younis, a donkey cart prepares to carry a hot lunch of koshari—lentils, rice, and tomato sauce—to displaced families. This meal, humble yet nourishing, comes from one of only two community kitchens operated by American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), a US-based humanitarian organization.

 

 

"People rely on our meals; they have no source of income to buy what's left in the local markets and many foods are not available," says Sami Matar, who leads the Anera team. With borders shut and resources drying up, he warns, “The coming days will be critical. We expect we have two weeks' supply, maybe less.”

 

Once able to serve meals that included meat, the kitchen now works only with basic ingredients. “In the past we used to cook rice with meat – with protein. Now, because of the closure, there's no type of meat, no fresh vegetables,” Matar adds. The situation is worsening daily as Gaza's supply chains have collapsed under Israel’s months-long blockade—its most extensive ever.

 

 

International outcry is mounting. Humanitarian agencies and the United Nations have sounded alarms about impending mass starvation. "Aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip," said the UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher. "Blocking aid starves civilians. It leaves them without basic medical support. It strips them of dignity and hope. It inflicts a cruel collective punishment. Blocking aid kills."

 

 

The Anera kitchen in Khan Younis alone feeds about 6,000 people a day, part of a fragile network of a few dozen remaining kitchens across Gaza. These kitchens are now the last resort for hundreds of thousands of people who have lost access to food.

 

 

Much of the food used in recent months had been stockpiled during a temporary ceasefire earlier in the year. Those reserves are now nearly exhausted. While Israel maintains that it has allowed more than 25,000 aid trucks into Gaza, carrying nearly 450,000 tonnes of goods, it also accuses Hamas of diverting supplies for fighters or selling them for profit. However, the UN and various aid agencies have consistently rejected these claims, asserting that their distribution networks are carefully monitored.

 

Hamas terror militias are looting warehouses and storage facilities that have food supplies meant for the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza City. They've killed several civilians trying to stop their theft and are on a frenzied rampage to steal what little food remains.

Hamas terror militias are looting warehouses and storage facilities that have food supplies meant for the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza City. They've killed several civilians trying to stop their theft and are on a frenzied rampage to steal what little food remains. pic.twitter.com/TxlYWO8HGb

— Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib (@afalkhatib) May 2, 2025

 

"We work hard to avoid any interference from any parties. We have an accurate and strong distribution process," Matar affirms as he checks lists of aid recipients on his computer. Despite these efforts, reports have emerged this week of looting at five warehouses and at the main UNRWA complex in Gaza.

 

 

In the field kitchen, the air is thick with steam and urgency. Matar inspects the food to ensure quality before parcels are wrapped—each enough for a family of four. Workers, all of whom receive food to feed their own families, swiftly load the parcels onto the waiting cart.

 

The food is then taken to al-Mawasi, a crowded tent settlement along the coast where displaced families cling to survival. Field monitors oversee distribution as the needy gather. Among them is an elderly man on crutches, his face lighting up with relief as he secures two parcels of food. "Thank God, this will be enough," he says, clutching the containers meant for his family of seven.

 

While aid supplies accumulate at Gaza’s border crossings, distribution inside the enclave is slowed by shortages, logistics, and the sheer scale of need. Israeli officials have signaled plans to reform the aid delivery system, but for now, Gaza’s kitchens are hanging by a thread, eking out the last of their supplies in hopes that help might still come in time.

 

In al-Mawasi, as children gather around the Anera workers distributing food, their laughter briefly lifts the heavy silence of hunger. But behind their joy is a deep uncertainty—how long before even this last line of support runs out?

 

  Adpated by ASEAN Now from BBC | X 2025-05-02

 

 

[Chris Daley]

This war will continue.  God willing.