Gaza City, July 26, 2025 — Desperation permeates Gaza City as families grapple with an immediate food supply issue: hunger. With their daily lives becoming ever more difficult as food stocks run dry, residents describe an impossible existence where even one crumb of bread becomes hard to come by.
“Every morning we wake up hoping to find food to give to our children,” stated Umm Ahmed, mother of five and clutching a torn plastic bag she intended to fill with scraps from nearby bakery. But nothing comes. Not even one crumb.”
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry and local humanitarian officials, food reserves in Gaza City have nearly been depleted as a result of Israeli airstrikes, blocked aid convoys and infrastructure destruction. The UN has warned that conditions now meet famine threshold in certain northern Gaza districts; Gaza City being one of them.
Supermarkets and bakeries that once provided services for thousands are now closed down and empty. Farmers have been forced to leave their fields behind, while fishing — once an essential livelihood — has become near-impossible due to an ever tightening naval blockade.
“No flour, rice or even canned food remains available in the markets,” stated Mahmoud, 32-year-old aid volunteer. “People are resorting to boiling grass and gathering wild herbs just to survive.”
Children are among those most severely impacted, according to aid workers and the Ministry of Health. Aid workers report an increasing number of malnourished infants and toddlers being brought into understaffed and under-equipped hospitals too late to be saved; over 80 children have already died from hunger-related conditions in just the past six weeks alone according to them.
International organizations, including the UN World Food Programme (WFP), have repeatedly issued warnings of impending disaster in Yemen, but aid convoys remain stuck at border crossings due to fighting, security restrictions and bureaucratic delays – often being met by desperate crowds that cause chaos and looting when aid attempts do manage to pass through.
Israel claims it is targeting Hamas militants and infrastructure while permitting humanitarian aid through designated channels, however UN officials and NGOs claim this amount is far too limited to enable effective distribution. Logistical issues make effective distribution nearly impossible.
“We need more than words; we require immediate and unhindered access,” according to a WFP spokesperson. “This crisis goes far beyond humanitarian concerns; it represents a moral catastrophe.”
Ordinary Gazans must make do with whatever means are available, often depending on neighbors or underground barter systems for survival – though even these networks are beginning to collapse due to sustained scarcity.
As dusk settles over Gaza City, families withdraw into dark homes, their stomachs gnawing with hunger. Shelling may halt briefly but hunger remains unyieldingly, mercilessly, and silent.