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STORY: GAZA / HUNGER LACK OF JOBS
TRT: 11:18
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 25 AUGUST 2025, GAZA CITY / DEIR AL-BALAH, CENTRAL GAZA STRIP
25 AUGUST 2025, GAZA CITY
1. Various shots, displaced persons' tents, Gaza City’s beach
2. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar’s family, displaced from Jabalia town in northern Gaza to western Gaza City, where they live in a tent
3. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar heading out to search for food
4. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar walking barefoot, tents
5. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar, vegetable and grocery vendor.
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim Al-Najjar, displaced:
“As you can see, prices are extremely high, like tourist prices, and we don’t have money to buy anything. We’ve been unemployed for two years and can’t afford to purchase anything. We just look at the goods and feel sorrow. I crave a single tomato or potato. Yesterday, I held a tomato in my hand because I missed it so much—we’ve forgotten what it looks like. We’ve been jobless for two years and without money. We can’t eat or drink; hunger is killing us. In the past, we used to buy potatoes and food, but as for meat—we’ve forgotten its taste and even what it looks like. We need meat, food, and drink like everyone else. I don’t have 70 shekels to buy a kilo of tomatoes. I have seven family members, and even if I bought one kilo, it would be like a joke to them, just for smelling. I swear I don’t have 70 shekels to afford it.”
7. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar returning empty-handed
8. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar heading to community kitchen,
9. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar standing at community kitchen, waiting for his turn, crowd of residents seeking food,
10. Various shots, community kitchen worker scraping remaining rice from pot to fill child’s container,
11. Various shots, overcrowding at community kitchen as displaced people request food
12. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar after he managed to fill his container with rice, returning to his tent 13. Various shots, Ibrahim Al-Najjar’s family gathering around plate of rice
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim Al-Najjar, displaced:
“As you can see, this is our situation. We wish for food and drink, but nothing is available. For two years now—since the start of the war—I haven’t worked. I used to drive a passenger car and my life was stable; I could bring my family food, vegetables, fruits, meat, and fish. But now we’ve forgotten all of that. Just now, I went to the market with only 50 shekels. I checked the prices of potatoes and tomatoes because my children wanted them, but I couldn’t buy anything because the money wasn’t enough. As you can see, we sit in this unbearable heat inside a tent, and nobody cares about us.”
15. Various shots, Al-Najjar family sitting inside their tent
25 AUGUST 2025, DEIR AL-BALAH, CENTRAL GAZA STRIP
16. Various shots, Al-Aqsa Hospital building, children’s ward, women with their malnourished children
17. Various shots, Ahmad Abu Labda’s mother checking on her malnourished child
18. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmad Abu Labda’s mother:
“The situation in Gaza is economically deteriorating because of the war, destruction, and bombardment. My child needs food, milk, and nutritional supplements. Prices here are extremely high, and we cannot afford them. I support four other family members in addition to this child, and all of them need food. Because of the war, we don’t have the means, and even if we did, the prices are unaffordable.”
19. Various shots, mothers with their children, children’s ward
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) mother of infant Wateen Abu Bakr:
“My daughter Wateen suffers from severe malnutrition. She is now four months old and weighs only one and a half kilograms. She is here in the hospital due to malnutrition and suffers from chest infections. She needs milk and proper nutrition, which are not available. A baby her age should weigh much more.”
21. Various shots, children suffering from malnutrition lying on hospital beds, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
22. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Hani Al-Fleiti, head, children’s department, Al-Aqsa Hospital:
“Malnutrition is now affecting younger age groups. Currently, 70 to 80 percent of children admitted to Al-Aqsa Hospital suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition, and around 30 to 40 percent of them suffer from severe malnutrition requiring hospital care. Malnourished children are vulnerable to all kinds of diseases because malnutrition weakens immunity. In some cases, we lost children due to malnutrition while they were also suffering from other illnesses at the same time.”
23. Various shots, children suffering from malnutrition lying on hospital beds
Residents of the Gaza Strip are facing worsening economic conditions as famine deepens and sources of income vanish, with most having lost their jobs during the two-year war.
Testimonies from residents and doctors reveal an unprecedented crisis of food insecurity and malnutrition.
Ibrahim Al-Najjar, a displaced man from Jabalia in northern Gaza now living in a tent near Gaza port, says he can no longer feed his family of seven after losing his job as a taxi driver.
In an interview, he said, “Prices are extremely high. We have been without work for two years and have no money. I held a tomato in my hand out of sheer longing—we have forgotten what it looks like. I cannot buy a kilo of tomatoes for 70 shekels while my children are starving.”
At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, pressure is mounting on the children’s ward, which is receiving dozens of cases of malnutrition.
Umm Ahmad, monitoring her son’s condition, said, “My child needs food, milk, and nutritional supplements, but we cannot provide them. The war has destroyed everything, and prices are unaffordable.”
Dr. Ahmad Al-Fleiti, head of the hospital’s children’s department, explained that between 70 and 80 percent of children admitted suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition, with up to 40 percent in severe condition requiring immediate treatment.
He added, “Malnutrition weakens immunity and makes children vulnerable to all diseases. We have lost some due to the combination of hunger and other illnesses.”
More than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths, according to a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released on Friday (22 Aug).
The new assessment reports the most severe deterioration since the IPC began analyzing acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, and it marks the first time a famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region.
By the end of September, more than 640 000 people will face Catastrophic levels of food insecurity – classified as IPC Phase 5 – across the Gaza Strip.
An additional 1.14 million people in the territory will be in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and a further 396 000 people in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) conditions.
Conditions in North Gaza are estimated to be as severe – or worse – than in Gaza City.
