GAZA, (PIC)
Um Mohammed, a displaced woman from Al-Shujaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City, no longer knows how to convince her children to sleep without food. For weeks, she relied on a hot meal arriving daily from a humanitarian kitchen near the shelter center where she lives, but the meals gradually decreased, before the distribution stopped completely on some days.
She says as she sits in front of her worn-out tent west of the city to the reporter of PIC, “We were waiting for the meal as if it were the last hope in life, now hunger is returning again, what is available today in the markets requires money that neither we nor most of the displaced people possess.”
With the continuation of the war and the siege, fears are escalating in the Gaza Strip of the return of famine on a wider scale, after charitable and humanitarian kitchens began closing their doors or reducing the number of daily meals as a result of the shortage of food supplies and fuel, in light of the continuation of the Israeli policy of dripping through the crossings.
In a scene that is repeated daily, long queues of men, women, and children gather in front of food distribution points, while many leave with empty containers after the quantities allocated for distribution run out.
رجلٌ من غزة يصرخ بأعلى صوته وسط حشدٍ كبير من الناس، فقط ليحصل على لقمة تسد جوعه. بعد توقّف بعض التكيّات عن توزيع الطعام في #غزة. pic.twitter.com/tHtAZI2Kfk
— ثائر البنا، غزة
(@thaeralbannaa) May 22, 2026
Shrinking aid
During recent days, relief agencies announced the reduction of their food operations inside the Strip due to the decline in the quantities of basic materials, while displaced people spoke of a clear decrease in the number of meals provided and an increase in the numbers of people waiting in front of distribution points.
According to what was announced by the Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza, Israel continues to reduce the numbers of trucks allowed to enter, in addition to controlling the quality of food materials that are entered intermittently through the crossings, which caused an acute crisis in food security in the Strip.
The Office said that the continuation of preventing or delaying the entry of aid led to a decline in the ability of humanitarian institutions to provide hot meals and operate bakeries, warning of an “actual return of the ghost of famine,” in light of the increasing numbers of displaced people and the reliance of hundreds of thousands of families on daily food aid only.
The GMO indicated that some relief institutions previously reduced the flour support allocated to bakeries, before recently starting to reduce hot meal services, as a result of the depletion of food stock and the difficulty of entering supplies.
The GMO director, Ismail al-Thawabta, revealed in a press statement that since the ceasefire agreement entered into force in early October 2025, Israel allowed the entry of only 48,636 trucks out of 131,400 trucks that were supposed to enter, with a commitment rate not exceeding 37%, which means that more than 63% of basic humanitarian needs were not allowed to enter.
He showed that during the period from the beginning of May 2026 until May 18, only 2,719 trucks entered out of 10,800 trucks that were supposed to enter, with a commitment rate that declined to only 25%, which is a highly dangerous indicator that reflects the escalation of the policy of deliberate dripping of aid.
He pointed out that this decline confirms beyond any doubt that Israel practices a systematic policy that uses food, medicine, and humanitarian aid as tools of pressure and political blackmail, violating the rules of international humanitarian law and inflicting catastrophic damage on civilians.
Al-Thawabta demanded the international community, the mediators, and the sponsors of the ceasefire agreement to assume their legal, humanitarian, and moral responsibilities, and to move immediately to oblige Israel to implement all clauses of the agreement without selectivity or procrastination, including opening the crossings fully and regularly, stopping the war of genocide, aggression, and continuous killing, stopping starvation and the siege, and ensuring the free and safe flow of humanitarian and relief aid.
Hunger queues
The displaced forty-year-old man Abu Jihad, who is a father of five children residing in a school sheltering hundreds of families in Deir Al-Balah, described the process of obtaining food as a “daily battle.”
He said in a private interview with the PIC, “We stand long hours under the sun so that we get a plate of rice or lentils, sometimes people return with nothing, some families have their children sleep hungry.”
In one of the displacement centers in Nuseirat camp, Um Mohammed stood carrying empty containers waiting for the opening of a charitable kitchen whose workers announced the postponement of distribution due to the shortage of food materials.
The fifty-year-old lady says in an interview with the reporter of PIC, “We no longer dream of meat or fruit, we only want bread or a plate to silence our hunger and the hunger of our children.”
She adds, “I feel helpless and ashamed when my son asks for food and I have nothing to give him, the war did not leave us a house or money, and now hunger is killing us slowly, and what is available in the markets requires money we do not have.”
UN warnings
The United Nations, for its part, launched during the past days escalating warnings of the collapse of the humanitarian and food situation in Gaza, emphasizing that the restrictions imposed on the entry of aid paralyze the humanitarian response.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs “OCHA” explained that obstacles related to crossings, delaying the entry of trucks, and the lack of fuel led to a dangerous decline in relief operations, especially those related to food, water, and health.
According to recent UN reports, more than one million children in Gaza face the risk of acute malnutrition, while the basic components of life, including food, water, healthcare, and shelter, are eroding rapidly.
Specialists in humanitarian affairs warn that the continuation of reducing aid will lead to the expansion of the circle of hunger and the spread of diseases related to malnutrition, especially among children, the elderly, and the sick.
In displacement tents, a single meal a day seems for tens of thousands of families a matter of life or death, while hunger continues to expand silently in a Strip exhausted by war, siege, and loss.
