Gaza's Food Aid Challenges Persist Despite Ceasefire

Mon Nov 24 2025 16:32:29 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Despite the recent ceasefire, food kitchens in Gaza continue to face shortages of essential products, raising concerns over nutrition and the humanitarian crisis in the region.

Following a ceasefire in Gaza, food kitchens run by organizations like Anera are struggling to secure essential food items. While they provide meals to many displaced families, the ongoing restrictions mean that vital proteins and diverse nutritional options remain unavailable. The humanitarian crisis has led to a dire need for increased aid and resources as families continue to face uncertainty and hardship.

Garlic simmers in huge metal pots heated over open wood fires and set up in a long line. Cooks add canned tomatoes and peppers with handfuls of spices, stirring the sauce with giant spoons. What is being prepared here is not just lunch, it is a lifeline.

American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) opened this community kitchen in al-Zawayda in central Gaza after the ceasefire began six weeks ago. The US humanitarian organisation has another kitchen in al-Mawasi in the south of the strip, which the BBC visited in early May. Back then, two months into an Israeli blockade, preventing the entry of all food and other goods, stocks were dwindling. Now, with more food allowed to enter, the situation has improved.

Each day, Anera feeds a hot meal to more than 20,000 people. We have moved from using 15 pots in the past, and now we increased to up to 120 pots in a day, targeting more than 30 internally displaced people's camps, says team leader Sami Matar. We're serving more than 4,000 families compared to just 900 families six months ago. Access to food has been a constant concern since the start of the war in October 2023, with Israel heavily restricting supplies allowed through Gaza's crossings.

This has exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation. Famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August and projected to spread to other areas of the strip. The UN continues to call for more aid to be allowed in.

On the menu today is spaghetti served with canned vegetables and tomato sauce and flavoured with generous handfuls of spices. Sami gives an approving nod as he tastes a spoonful. But while Anera is managing to get access to more food, brought into Gaza by its partner, the US humanitarian organisation World Central Kitchen, there are still vital ingredients missing to improve people's diets.

We are mostly confined to cooking just three types of meals in a week: rice, pasta and lentils, Mr Matar says. We work hard to include vegetables like sweet peppers, onion and potatoes. This enables us to improve the taste and nutritional value. We need the food to be more diverse, to secure fresh vegetables and essential proteins like meat and chicken. Those essentials are not allowed to enter Gaza for humanitarian aid distribution.

For now, fresh meat and poultry are only being imported by commercial sellers, which are too expensive for aid organisations to buy locally. Anera's kitchens also lack utensils, packaging and canisters of gas for cleaner cooking methods. Since the ceasefire, Anera has only once served a meal with meat, which came from tins.

Despite increasing difficulties and an uncertain future, the hope remains for the families relying on these kitchens. As conditions in Gaza continue to evolve, the international community is urged to respond decisively to the urgent humanitarian needs present in the region.