Deir al-Balah, Aug 7 (AP) — Sally Muzhed's family of six faces a grim reality: a single bowl of eggplant stewed in watery tomato juice must suffice for an entire day. She calls it moussaka, but it's a diluted version of the aromatic, layered meat-and-vegetable dish that once filled Gaza's kitchens.
War has severed families from their traditional ways of farming or fishing, and the scant food that makes its way into the besieged strip is often looted, hoarded, and resold at exorbitant rates.
Mothers like Muzhed continuously adapt, reimagining Palestinian staples with the scant ingredients they can gather from trucks, airdropped parcels, or purchase at elevated prices in the market. Israel enforced a total blockade on incoming trucks to the strip in early March but began permitting aid in May. However, humanitarian organizations claim the assistance remains far from sufficient.
While some cooks have become inventive out of necessity, most are desperate to break the monotonous cycle of the limited ingredients available, if they can access them at all. Some families survive on brittle, stale pita, cans of beans consumed cold due to a lack of cooking gas, or whatever remains available at charity kitchens if they arrive early enough.
“The children remain hungry. Tomorrow we won't have any food to eat,” said Muzhed from her tent in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, where her family has been displaced. Previously, her bowl would barely feed one child. Now she dispenses it carefully in spoonfuls, stretching it as much as possible. Her son asks why he can't have more.
This struggle is mirrored across Gaza as the territory descends into what international experts have termed “the worst-case scenario of famine.” On some days, mothers like Amani al-Nabahin manage to acquire mujaddara from charity kitchens. The dish, previously enriched with caramelized onions and spices, now consists only of rice and lentils.
"Nearly nine out of ten households resorted to extremely severe coping mechanisms to feed themselves, such as taking significant safety risks to obtain food, and scavenging from the garbage,” reported the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification on July 29.
Cooking gas is scarce, vegetables are expensive, and meat has virtually disappeared from the markets. Families in Gaza once dipped bread into dukkah, a condiment of ground wheat and spices. Now, 78-year-old Alia Hanani rations bread piece by piece, offering it once daily at noon, allowing everyone to dip it in a wartime dukkah made of flour, lentils, and bulgur.
“There's no dinner or breakfast,” she said, being the mother of eight.
Some have even less. All Rehab al-Kharoubi has for herself and her seven children is a bowl of raw white beans.
“I had to beg for it,” she admitted.
For others, there is almost nothing. Kifah Qadih, displaced from Khuza'a east of Khan Younis, has an empty bowl that has remained bare all day.
“Today there is no food. There is nothing.”
(AP) GSP
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