‘Life has become nothing but queues’: Gaza faces renewed famine threat amid Israeli siege

“What breaks your heart is the children.”

Not only are the Israelis relentlessly killing genocide survivors in the Gaza Strip, but their continued blockade of the enclave has once again brought besieged Palestinians to the brink of famine. Long lines persist outside community kitchens as people struggle to secure adequate meals for themselves and their families amid widespread deprivation.

“In Palestine, conditions in Gaza remain fragile despite some improvements after the October 2025 ceasefire,” a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) stated earlier this week. “More than 1.6 million people were previously assessed as needing urgent food support.”

It added:

In the latest IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] analysis from December 2025, 1.6 million people were projected to face Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above) acute food insecurity in the Gaza Strip between December 2025 and mid-April 2026, of whom nearly 571,000 people were expected to face Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and 1,900 people were expected to face Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5).

Due to the wholesale destruction of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure by the genocidal Israelis during the course of their ongoing genocide, the report states that “nearly the entire population remains dependent on humanitarian food assistance.”

That assistance is also at the mercy of the Israelis, who have explicitly and repeatedly stated that they intend to make Gaza unliveable for its Arab population and eventually displace that population to make way for Jews-only settlements.

The effects of this genocidal policy are leading to catastrophic consequences for Palestinians enduring famine-like conditions in the Gaza Strip. They have already braved severe food scarcity, including an official famine in August 2025, since the start of the genocidal Israeli assault in October 2023.

Due to the Israeli siege, which has continued despite the supposed ceasefire last October, community kitchens are struggling to meet the needs of a hungry population that the Israelis have continued to bomb, shoot, and starve with total impunity.

“In the community-kitchen line, people do not ask what food is being served; they ask whether it will be enough,” Ultra Palestine reported on Saturday. “Lines stretch outside communal kitchens in displacement camps, where for thousands of families, a hot meal has become the daily dividing line between hunger and the ability to keep going.”

These kitchens helped Gaza’s residents survive the worst stages of the genocidal war, but they now face a crisis threatening their continued operation. With funding cuts, depleted supplies, and growing numbers of people in need, fears of famine are returning — not merely as an international warning, but as a lived experience residents know all too well.

“The community kitchen comes to our area between eleven and twelve, and if I want to secure today’s meal, I have to line up an hour beforehand,” Abeer Bashar, who was displaced from eastern Gaza City, told Ultra Palestine.

“Life has become nothing but queues — a queue for water, a queue for the kitchen, a queue for medical treatment, and a queue for aid,” she added. “Fear now governs us — the fear of war returning, the fear of displacement, and the fear of famine all over again. The first and second famines were extremely difficult; we were on the edge of death.”

In a camp west of Deir al-Balah, Suhad Sukkar bears responsibility for supporting her own children as well as her brother-in-law’s children, who lost both parents during the war. “The food wasn’t enough,” she said. “I have my own children and my brother-in-law’s children after their mother and father were killed. They all need food, water, and care.”

For her, the war has not ended: “The war hasn’t stopped as long as I’m unable to cook and feed my children. For the past three years, our greatest fear has been not having enough food.”

Farajallah Masad lives an even harsher reality. “Sometimes I have to give up my share of food or reduce my portion for the sake of my son’s children,” he said.

“Praise be to God in all circumstances. I’m a government employee nearing retirement, and we receive only a reduced portion of our salary every seventy days or more. Even then, neither the food nor the money is enough.”

“What breaks your heart is the children,” he added. “They need proper nutrition. But who is there to talk to or complain to? The whole world sees what’s happening and remains silent.”

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