Gaza’s food crisis: One meal, seven mouths, and rising health risks

GAZA CITY — For Mervat Radwan, hearing that a community kitchen in her displacement camp is serving lunch offers a brief reprieve from the daily anxiety of starvation. She walks with her six-year-old nephew, Ubay, to collect the meal, but the portion is rarely sufficient for her household of seven.

“Sometimes they give us a cooked meal, but it isn’t enough for seven people, so I try to find something besides it,” Radwan told Al Jazeera. She supplements the communal offering with whatever she can find, such as cans of tuna, beans, or peas from aid parcels, to stretch the food further.

Community kitchens have become a lifeline for families with little to no income in Gaza, yet their operations have become increasingly unreliable. The kitchen near Radwan’s site in Deir el-Balah was closed for nearly two months before resuming services for only two days a week.

Data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs highlights the scale of the decline. Daily meal production in Gaza dropped from approximately 1.5 million across 165 kitchens in mid-March to just 698,000 served by 102 kitchens by July. This contraction is attributed to severe funding gaps and soaring operational costs, leaving charities unable to secure adequate food or cooking supplies.

A Family Torn Apart

Radwan, 45, became the sole guardian of her three nephews following an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza on October 18, 2024. The attack killed her brother, Mohammad, 38, his wife, Anwar, 33, and their one-year-old son, Yosuf.

The surviving children bear physical and psychological scars. Nayef, now 14, has shrapnel lodged in his head; Habib, 11, suffered body burns; and Ubay, now four, also endured severe burns. For the past nine months, the children have lived in a tent in Deir el-Balah with Radwan, her 70-year-old father, and her 40-year-old sister, Sanaa.

With no regular income, the family relies entirely on aid. Radwan noted that adults in the household often skip meals to ensure the children eat. “My elderly father won’t eat until he knows his grandchildren have had enough,” she said. “Maybe this is the most we can do in these difficult circumstances.”

Health Costs of Scarcity

Fresh produce is increasingly unaffordable. Meat is considered a luxury, and vegetables are scarce and expensive. For Habib, whose recovery requires frequent hydration and foods with high water content like cucumbers, the costs are prohibitive. One kilogram of cucumbers costs approximately 15 shekels ($4.50), while tomatoes range from 10 to 12 shekels ($3–$3.60).

“If Ubay wants cucumbers, and the children like cucumbers, I buy three cucumbers, that’s it,” Radwan said.

The World Food Programme reported in July that 77 percent of households in Gaza struggle to afford fresh vegetables, fruit, and protein due to high prices and limited incomes. This economic pressure has led to a diet heavily reliant on canned goods, which are high in salt.

The health consequences are already visible. Habib has suffered from kidney stones for about a year, a condition doctors link to his salt-heavy, canned-food diet. Changing this diet remains difficult because fresh items are too expensive and aid supplies predominantly consist of tins. For families like the Radwans, while charity keeps them alive, the lack of dietary diversity is gradually eroding their health.