ISLAM Abu Taeima and her 9-year-old daughter, Waed, begin their day before sunrise in Gaza City. Their home was destroyed months ago, so they now live in a crowded school-turned-shelter with hundreds of other displaced families. With nothing left in the communal pot and no aid in sight, Islam and Waed set out on a desperate journey: searching through piles of trash for anything edible.
They walk past the ruins of familiar neighbourhoods, now reduced to rubble. The air is thick with the smell of decay and burning debris. Flies buzz around overflowing garbage bags. Islam, who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, never imagined she would one day be picking through waste for food. But this has become their daily reality. She finds a small pile of cooked rice, a few scraps of bread, and a box with smears of white cheese. She carefully picks out the dry parts of bread, hoping to boil them later for her five children.
“We’re dying of hunger,” Islam says. “If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Islam’s family is one among the 2.3 million Gazans pushed to the brink of famine by the ongoing blockade and relentless conflict. More than 55,000 people have died since the war began, with women and children making up over half of the casualties. The blockade, imposed by Israel since early March, has cut off all food, medicine, and supplies. While some aid trucks have been allowed in after international pressure, the trickle is woefully insufficient—sometimes as few as nine trucks a day for the entire enclave.
The United Nations and humanitarian agencies warn that 470,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5), and nearly every child is at risk of acute malnutrition. Food prices in the market have soared to levels most families cannot afford, and what little food remains available is often out of reach.
For many, the only hope of food comes from aid distribution points. But reaching these sites is perilous. Since March 27, Israeli attacks on crowds waiting for food aid have killed over 400 people and wounded more than 3,000. On one recent day, at least 59 people were killed and over 200 injured in Khan Younis when Israeli military strikes hit a crowd waiting for flour trucks. Many families, desperate to survive, face an impossible choice: risk death in search of food or starve in hiding.
Islam and Waed return to the shelter with their meagre finds. She boils the scraps in a pot, sharing the thin, watery meal with her children. Some days, they find nothing and go to bed hungry. The shame of scavenging for food weighs heavily on Islam, who once worked as a secretary and a reader for the blind. Her husband, wounded in a previous war, is unable to work.
“I feel sorry for myself because I’m educated and despite that, I’m eating from the trash,” she confides.
This family’s journey is repeated thousands of times across Gaza every day. As the death toll rises above 55,000 and famine looms, those who survive are being denied the aid that could keep them alive. With food and medicine stockpiled at the borders and the population trapped inside, the risk of further mass starvation grows by the day. The world watches as families like Islam’s risk everything for the hope of a single meal.
