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SvennoJ on 30 April 2025
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Remaining charity kitchens in Gaza could shut down within days

The Reuters news agency is reporting that dozens of local community kitchens in Gaza risk closing down, potentially within days, unless aid is allowed into the Strip.

At the Al-Salam Oriental Food community kitchen in Gaza City, Salah Abu Haseera said he is offering what he fears could be one of the last meals for the 20,000 people he and his colleagues serve daily.

“We face huge challenges in keeping going. We may go out of operation within a week, or maybe less,” Abu Haseera told Reuters by phone.

These kitchens vary from one-room businesses to regular restaurants. “We have 70-80 community kitchens still working in Gaza… In four to five days, these community kitchens will close their doors,” Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) in Gaza, told Reuters.

Shawa put the number of operational community kitchens in Gaza before the crossings closed at about 170. He said an additional 15 kitchens closed down on Monday.

Israel, which has abandoned the ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas in January, imposed its total blockade on Gaza on March 2, in a bid to pressure the Palestinian group into agreeing to new terms. The ongoing blockade is the longest such closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced.


Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, April 29


Famine assessment under way in Gaza

The world’s hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, has begun an analysis of the lack of food and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip.

The assessment began on April 28 and will last one week, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA). More than 50 trained analysts from UN agencies and aid groups, both from the Gaza Strip and from abroad, are taking part in the exercise, it said.

The assessment comes as aid agencies warn that Gaza is on the verge of famine with Israel’s total blockade of the Strip entering its 60th day. The IPC had issued at least four warnings since Israel’s war on Gaza began, saying the territory could be teetering on the precipice of famine.

According to the UN, a famine is a situation in which a substantial proportion of a population cannot access adequate food, resulting in widespread acute malnutrition and loss of life by starvation and disease.

For the IPC to declare a famine, it says, three conditions backed by evidence must be met:

  • At least 20 percent of the population in that particular area is facing an extreme lack of food.
  • At least 30 percent of the children are too thin for their height.
  • At least two people out of every 10,000 are dying each day due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

As if Israel is suddenly going to allow aid in when the IPC declares famine. They'll just call them anti-semitic.


Palestinians struggle to survive under Israeli blockade nearing third month

With Israel’s blockade on food, medicine and other supplies now in its 60th day, people in Gaza are struggling to survive and are adopting coping strategies now stretched to the limit.

According to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), widespread displacement has forced many people to abandon food supplies and emergency stocks secured during the ceasefire signed in January.

Bread from UN-supported bakeries is no longer available, and most people cannot bake for themselves due to acute shortages of cooking fuel and the soaring cost of wheat flour, the report said.

Families are mixing crushed pasta with flour to make bread, which means smaller and less frequent meals. They are also giving bread to children or allocating just one piece per family member per day, it said.

People must rely on aid supplies as farmers and breeders can’t access their land, as 70 percent of the enclave has been designated as a “no-go” area or is under displacement orders by the Israeli military, the report added.