Hunger and malnutrition stalk Gazans

Khan Yunis, Oct. 11: Every day, Gazan mother Niyaha al-Masri spends six exhausting hours or more queueing at a community kitchen in the hope of getting some food for her family.

It has been a year since a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was supposed to allow food to flood into the ruined territory, yet widespread hunger persists there. Masri has little choice. Without the kitchen run by humanitarian groups, she and her eight children would have "nothing at all", the 35-year-old told AFP.

Each day she sets out early in the morning and returns in the afternoon, this time bringing four containers of rice, lentils and a little chicken, which the family throws itself at. Among them is her husband, wounded in both legs by an airstrike, meaning he "cannot go and fight with the others" to get food. This will be the only meal of the day for the family of 10, living in a tent in Khan Yunis. There was no breakfast and they will have no dinner. What little flour they have, Masri explained, has to be rationed.

In August 2025, a United Nations-backed body, the IPC, declared a state of famine in Gaza, though Israel quickly denounced it as a lie. By December, the UN had lifted that declaration, saying that the ceasefire had allowed in enough supplies over the course of two months to ease conditions.