GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL 

Every day, thousands of Palestinians wait for long hours to get a plate of food or a bowl of soup from the last remaining food delivery spot in the Tel al-Zaatar neighborhood in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Obtaining food has become a daily battle for many Palestinians in Gaza, where most of the residents are unable to eat more than one simple meal every day amid a stifling Israeli siege.

Since March 2, Israel has kept Gaza’s crossings closed to food, medical, and humanitarian aid, deepening an already humanitarian crisis in the enclave, according to government, human rights, and international reports.

In the last remaining food delivery spot in Tel al-Zaatar, exhausted volunteers are making soup in large pots under countless gazes.

However, the available amount of food is not enough to feed all, in a scene that embodies the depth of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory.

Famine

Maria Awajeh, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl, has been waiting three hours to get a bowl of soup.

“We eat one meal a day; there is no flour or food because of the closure of the borders,” Awajeh told Anadolu.

“I hope food and gas enter (the strip) and the war ends,” she said.

Yaser Shaheen, a resident of the Jabalia refugee camp, said getting food is a daily suffering.

“The houses are empty. Even if there is food available in the markets, the prices are really high,” he said.

“One kilo of flour is sold for $10, oil for $20, salt for $5, and sugar for over $30 in the market,” the poor man said.

Shaheen comes to the food delivery spot at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) every day to get some soup or pasta for his family.

“My family eats only one meal a day amid this famine,” he said.

Nearly 2.4 million people in Gaza live completely dependent on humanitarian aid, according to World Bank data.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians eat only one meal every two or three days amid Israel’s crippling blockade.

“More than 66,000 children in Gaza are suffering from severe malnutrition,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna told Al-Ghad TV in an interview.

Figures released by Gaza’s government media office showed that at least 57 Palestinians have died of starvation since October 2023.

Dying of hunger

Mahmoud Sheihk, another Palestinian child, is waiting among the crowds to get one meal.

"I came to get one meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because there is no food in our house,” he told Anadolu.

Palestinian mother Umm Yasser al-Tatar is no different than others as she waited to get food to relieve the hunger of her 18 family members.

“Our people are dying of starvation, and all countries are just watching. We want a ceasefire,” she said in a tired voice.

"We wait long hours to receive food from the charity, as there is no food in our homes," said Fadi Hamad, a young Palestinian in the Jabalia refugee camp.

"The crossings are closed, and we hope the siege will be lifted and the war will end."

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, expressed her grief for the suffering that Palestinians are going through in Gaza amid the Israeli siege.

“Your hunger today is our shame,” she said on her X account.

“After 19 months of genocidal violence and 60 days without a grain of rice entering Gaza, Palestinians have to be ‘shown’ to the world while scrambling for food as if they were gasping for air, grabbing it from filthy grounds, getting hurt while seeking a hole in the human flesh amassing for a handful of emptiness?”

More than 52,600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.