As Ramadan comes to a close, Palestinians say finding and affording food in Gaza a challenge

As Muslims in Gaza prepare to mark Eid this weekend and the end of the holy month of Ramadan, families say they’re barely making ends meet, with no food entering the territory for nearly a month. 

Rania Hegazy, 38, who is currently sheltering in a tent in Gaza City with her husband and three children, was ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza last week.

“We’re living on canned food. There is no clean water or proper hygiene,” Hegazy told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Thursday from the tent encampment.

“Last Ramadan was bad, but this one is even worse.” 

Nearly one month after Israel imposed a complete blockade on all aid and goods entering into Gaza, humanitarian organizations say their food supplies are dwindling as food prices are soaring. Hegazy said finding food to feed her family becomes more and more challenging each day, especially during Ramadan — a holy month where millions of Muslims around the world fast from dawn to sunset as a form of worship.

“It’s been more than a year and a half of us being forced to move from one place to another. My children have suffered a lot,” she said.

Eid — which literally translates to the celebration of breaking fast in Arabic and marks the end of Ramadan — is expected to arrive on Sunday. Hegazy says she has trouble knowing what to tell her children — who are between four and six years old — when they ask for clothes or toys.

“Eid? There’s no Eid.

“My daughter asks me for a new outfit for Eid … something simple, a blouse or dress, but I am unable to get that for her,” she says, wiping away tears.

Last year, the family was sheltering in northern Gaza where much of the population was ordered to flee to the south due to the heavy Israeli bombardment. 

Hegazy says they break their fast with whatever they can find — oftentimes that’s rice with some kind of canned food. On Thursday it was rice with beans next to a bowl of macaroni that another family in their tent encampment brought over to share with them.

“Today, we found a portion of rice, and thank God we did,” she said. “During Ramadan last year, we could not find rice to eat — there was mass starvation.”

Prices of food soar as supplies dwindle

Israel resumed bombing and ground operations in Gaza last week, breaking a two-month-old ceasefire amid rows over terms for extending it. Two weeks before, it reimposed a ban on humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. It says the measures are meant to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to seize territory in Gaza if the militant group refuses to return them.

Hegazi said before the war, families would typically hold gatherings and make meals during Ramadan — mostly with meats, salads and soups. She said they would prepare fruit platters and qatayef — a Middle Eastern dessert similar to a small pancake — often stuffed with cheese, cream or nuts, then fried or baked and drenched with syrup. 

But prices of all foods have soared across the Gaza Strip since the blockade began.

Her husband, like many in Gaza, is unemployed, she says, with no way of making money during the war.

“Their father is sitting here. There’s no work. There’s nothing, we’re just sitting here forced to move from one place to the next.”

“I’m craving a salad and we can’t even buy a cucumber or a tomato. But thanks to God for everything, what matters most is that my family is safe.”

According to the the World Food Programme (WFP), the price of a 25-kilogram bag of wheat flour sells for up to $71 — a 400 per cent increase compared to prices before March 18.

Children drawing food in the sand

Last year, Palestinian Muslims in Gaza were in a similar predicament — under ongoing Israeli bombardment and scraping enough food together for Iftar during Ramadan, as supplies in the besieged enclave ran dangerously low.

Since Israeli airstrikes resumed last week, at least 855 Palestinians have been killed and 1,869 injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Over half of those killed were women and children, the ministry says.

Abubaker Abed, a Palestinian freelance journalist, said children in Gaza are so hungry that they are drawing pictures of food in the sand. 

“My friend told me today that he keeps watching food videos because he wishes to have a plate of meat or fish,” Abed wrote in a post on X Tuesday. 

Thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and abducting 251 hostages into Gaza. Fifty-nine hostages are still being held there, with 24 of them believed to be alive. 

The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 49,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, with thousands more believed to still be under the rubble.

Gazans again at risk of severe hunger, malnutrition

Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are again at risk of severe hunger and malnutrition as humanitarian food stocks in the enclave dwindle, with no aid getting through the borders, WFP said in a news release Thursday.

The United Nations agency said it has approximately 5,700 tonnes of food stock left in Gaza, enough to support its operations for two weeks at most.

“With the deteriorating security situation, rapid displacement of people, and growing needs, WFP has decided to distribute as much food as possible, as quickly as possible in Gaza,” WFP said.

The agency said it currently supports bakeries making bread, kitchens cooking hot meals, and the distribution of food parcels directly to families, which are all facing “record low” stock inside Gaza.

Mansoura Marouf, sheltering in the same tent encampment in Gaza City with her husband, said they have been relying on neighbours who are sharing food with other families. 

Early on in the war, the 52-year-old lost her only two sons, who between them left behind seven now-orphaned children.

“This is the second Ramadan we break fast in the streets, our backs are broken,” Marouf said, who also hails from Beit Lahiya and was ordered to evacuate last week.

“My children died and we’ve been left scrambling for shelter. This Ramadan is just dark. This Eid is dark.”