Gaza families still queue for meals a year after ceasefire, hunger persists

A year after a Hamas-Israel ceasefire was expected to deliver abundant food aid, Gaza families like that of 35-year-old Niyaha al-Masri still endure long daily queues at community kitchens, receiving only a single portion of rice, lentils and a little chicken for a ten-person household. Her husband, wounded in an airstrike, cannot assist in obtaining supplies, and the family lives in a tent in Khan Yunis with minimal flour and no other meals.

UN data from July indicate that 1.4 million of Gaza's roughly 2.1 million people are acutely food insecure, and 200,000 are one step away from famine. Shaun Hughes of the World Food Programme calls the nutrition situation "extremely serious," emphasizing the lack of dietary diversity needed for children and mothers. Israeli civil affairs body COGAT describes the humanitarian situation as stable, a view contradicted by health officials noting rising malnutrition-related illnesses. A Medecins du Monde report found 93 % of pregnant or breastfeeding women show anemia symptoms and only 17 % have a sufficiently varied diet, while Israa al-Najjar at Nasser hospital reports increasing immune-system disorders linked to poor nutrition.