For two million hungry Gazans, most days bring a difficult search for something to eat. Amany Mteir, 52, scours the streets north of Gaza City, where people sell or trade what food they have. This was the scene along Saftawy Street two weeks ago.
Farther north, in Beit Lahia, Aseel Mutair, 21, said she and her family of four split one pot of soup from an aid kitchen twice last week. One day they had nothing but tea.
Nizar Hammad, 30, is sheltering in a tent in Rafah with seven other adults and four children. They have not gotten aid in two weeks, and Nizar worked two days at a market to earn enough money to buy these bags of rice from a street vendor.
As the war in Gaza enters its sixth month, the risk of famine and starvation is acute, according to the United Nations. Aid groups have warned that deaths from malnutrition-related causes have only just begun.
The war, including Israel’s bombardment and siege, has choked food imports and destroyed agriculture, and nearly the entire population of Gaza relies on scant humanitarian aid to eat. The United States and others are looking for ways to deliver supplies by sea and air.
The problems are especially worrisome in the north, where aid has been almost nonexistent. U.N. agencies have mostly suspended their aid operations there, citing Israeli restrictions on convoys, security issues and poor conditions of roads.
The New York Times asked three families to share photos and videos of their search for food over the past few weeks. They all said that food was getting harder to find, and that most days, they did not know whether they would eat at all.
One meal a day
Humanitarian aid convoys do not reach Aseel and Amany’s homes in the north, and they have decided it is too dangerous to travel to seek them out. Instead, they head out early most mornings to survey informal street markets like this one.
Most food shops in northern Gaza are damaged or closed, so vendors set up informal street markets to sell food and other items.
Some vendors used to run grocery stores and are selling what stock they have left. Others buy and resell humanitarian aid. An average of just six commercial trucks carrying food and other supplies have been allowed to enter Gaza each day since early December.
One of the cheapest foods Aseel’s family can find is ground barley, which before the war was used in animal feed. Corn flour is sometimes available but is more expensive.
Aseel’s mother used these ingredients to make a piece of palm-sized pita bread for each of them. “I can’t even describe how awful it tastes,” Aseel said.
Even when Aseel’s family finds food before the afternoon, they wait to eat their single meal until dinnertime so they can sleep better.
On a recent day, her father found this small amount of rice at a street vendor’s table, and a day later found this portion of flour — after a five-hour search. The discovery made the family feel festive, but the inflated prices chipped away at their savings.
Aseel’s parents were unemployed before the war, but received some social services support because her mother is a cancer patient.
One night, Aseel, her parents and her brother, Muhammad, split a can of mushrooms to go with the rice. Aseel said she tried to convince herself it tasted like chicken.
With the flour, they made traditional pita bread, eating it with this soup from the leaves of a wild plant known as khubeiza.
Aseel’s family makes and eats soup from khubeiza leaves when there is nothing else to eat.
Last week, they had no luck at the markets. So on Monday, Muhammad, 16, stood in line for two hours at a tekeyah, a charity kitchen, at a nearby school. He brought home a bowl of rice soup for the family, but Aseel said he told her he did not like to be seen as begging.
Aseel ate five dates from the family’s stash and had a cup from her last container of instant coffee, a reminder of her life as a university student before the war.
The next day, Aseel’s father and brother spent hours on their feet searching for supplies. They visited Aseel’s aunt and reluctantly asked her for food. She shared a small amount of lentils. They ate them that evening and finished the dates they had planned to save.
They were too weak the next day to check the markets again, and there was no food at the aid kitchen. Instead, they drank tea.
What Aseel’s family of four ate each day from Feb. 28 to March 7
| Wednesday | A pot of khubeiza leaf soup |
| Thursday | A pot of khubeiza leaf soup |
| Friday | Rice and one can of mushrooms |
| Saturday | A pot of khubeiza leaf soup and pita bread made with white flour |
| Sunday | A pot of khubeiza leaf soup |
| Monday | Rice soup from the tekeyah and a few dates |
| Tuesday | Lentils and dates |
| Wednesday | Tea |
| Thursday | Carrot soup from… |
Read More: The Daily Hunt for Food in Gaza