Gaza food kitchens still missing essential products

Garlic simmers in huge metal pots heated over open wood fires and set up in a long line.

Cooks add canned tomatoes and peppers with handfuls of spices, stirring the sauce with giant spoons.

What is being prepared here is not just lunch, it is a lifeline.

American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) opened this community kitchen in al-Zawayda in central Gaza after the ceasefire began six weeks ago. Each day, Anera feeds a hot meal to more than 20,000 people. "We have moved from using 15 pots in the past, and now we increased to up to 120 pots in a day, targeting more than 30 internally displaced people's camps," says team leader Sami Matar. "We're serving more than 4,000 families compared to just 900 families six months ago."

"We are mostly confined to cooking just three types of meals in a week: rice, pasta and lentils," Mr Matar says. "We work hard to include vegetables like sweet peppers, onion and potatoes. This enables us to improve the taste and the nutritional value. We need the food to be more diverse, to secure fresh vegetables and essential proteins like meat and chicken," he goes on. "Those essentials are not allowed to enter Gaza for humanitarian aid distribution."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7klr7647jo

Anera's kitchen in al-Zuwayda is one of more than 35 across Gaza providing 210,000 hot meals per day