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UN PhotoGAZA / COMMUNITY KITCHEN
STORY: GAZA / COMMUNITY KITCHEN
TRT: 04:29
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 20 MAY 2025, GAZA CITY
1. Various shots, children and their families holding pots and waiting to receive free food
2. Med shot, lentil cooking pots
3. Various shots, children waiting to receive food
4. Med shot, a child placed a pot on their head to shield themselves from the sun while they wait
4. Various shots, children waiting to receive food
5. Various shots, severe overcrowding as families, with their children, try to fill their pots with a meal
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Al-Helou, one of the supervisors of the community kitchen:
“Every day, we cook 500 meals in this camp where we are located, but the number of displaced people keeps increasing. Due to evacuations carried out by the Israeli army in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun, displacement to this area is rising. We cook 500 meals, but the number of people who come to receive food is in the thousands. Everyone here relies primarily on the meal provided by this kitchen, and half of those who come leave without getting any food.”
6. Various shots, mothers and their children waiting with pots to get food
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mais, a little girl with a pot in her hands:
“I’ve been standing since morning, and everyone is pushing; the number is huge just to get food. Everyone is rushing in; how can I fill my plate? I can’t. Every day is like this. People come from inside and outside the camp for food. I’ve been here since early morning. I tried to rush in to get some food, but I can’t.”
8. Various shots, children waiting to get food
9. Wide shot, a little girl trying to gather the remaining scraps of food from the cooking pot
10. Med shot, children behind a large empty pot
Despite the Israeli government’s announcement of allowing limited humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip following more than two months of closed crossings, obtaining food remains a daily struggle for the population amid escalating displacement and acute shortages of essential supplies.
The city of Gaza is witnessing a growing influx of displaced people, following large-scale Israeli evacuation orders affecting several areas in the northern part of the Strip, including Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun. This displacement places additional pressure on community kitchens operating with limited resources and a severe lack of food supplies.
Mohammad Al-Helou, a supervisor at a community kitchen in Gaza City, said, “Every day, we cook 500 meals in this camp where we are located, but the number of displaced people keeps increasing. Due to evacuations carried out by the Israeli army in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun, displacement to this area is rising. We cook 500 meals, but the number of people who come to receive food is in the thousands. Everyone here relies primarily on the meal provided by this kitchen, and half of those who come leave without getting any food.”
Most residents suffer from a lack of purchasing power due to the loss of income caused by the war, in addition to the sharp rise in prices, while goods are increasingly scarce in the markets. Bread is among the scarcest food items on the Strip. Many families have not had any for over two months due to the absence of flour, both in markets and in humanitarian aid deliveries.
Mais, a displaced child, said, “I’ve been standing since morning, and everyone is pushing; the number is huge just to get food. Everyone is rushing in; how can I fill my plate? I can’t. Every day is like this. People come from inside and outside the camp for food. I’ve been here since early morning. I tried to rush in to get some food, but I can’t.”
On May 20, Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), speaking to journalists in Geneva from a warehouse full of ready-to-be-delivered supplies in Amman, Jordan, with enough food to feed 200,000 Palestinian civilians for an entire month, said, “Everything around me is aid that is supposed to be in the Gaza Strip right now.”
As warehouses and distribution centers lay empty in Gaza, amid calls for more humanitarian trucks to enter the food and medicine-deprived Palestinian enclave of Gaza, UN humanitarians have received permission from Israel for “around 100” more aid trucks to cross into the Strip after only five were let in on Monday (19 May), But the scale of relief efforts allowed remains entirely insufficient to meet the urgent needs of people there, humanitarian workers say.
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