Inside Gaza: Mothers Endure Hours in Food Lines Amid Persistent Famine Fears

Every morning, displaced Palestinian mother Niyaha al-Masri leaves her tent in Khan Younis and joins a long line outside a community kitchen, hoping that hours of waiting will end with a single meal for her family of 10. More than a year after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was supposed to open the way for food into the devastated enclave, hunger still defines daily life for many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Without the kitchen run by humanitarian groups, al-Masri says, her family would have nothing at all. On a recent day, after six hours in the queue, she returned in the afternoon carrying four containers of rice, lentils and a small portion of chicken – the only meal the family would have that day.

Her husband, wounded in both legs in an air strike, cannot go and fight with the others for food, she notes. What little flour they have is carefully rationed, while her eight children, aged three to 14, dream of eating fruit that the family cannot afford.

In August 2025, the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared a state of famine in Gaza, an assessment Israel denounced as a lie. By December, the UN had lifted the declaration, saying the ceasefire had allowed in enough aid over two months to ease the worst conditions.

However, Shaun Hughes of the WFP warned that the food security situation remains extremely serious. He noted that 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.1 million people suffer from acute food shortages, with 200,000 just one step below famine, driven further by a lack of nutritional diversity including protein, fresh vegetables and fruit.

Back in the tent camp in Khan Younis, al-Masri’s children spend their days collecting nylon, cardboard and foam to patch the family’s makeshift shelter. Calling the situation shameful and abnormal, al-Masri prepares to head out once again to stand in line for food.