Hunger and malnutrition stalk Gazans, a year on from ceasefire
The children of Nihaya Al-Masri, a 35-year-old displaced Palestinian woman from Beit Hanoun, sharing a meal provided by a charity kitchen in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 6. AFP-Yonhap
KHAN YUNIS, Palestinian Territories — Every day, Gazan mother Niyaha al-Masri spends six exhausting hours or more queueing at a community kitchen in the hope of getting some food for her family.
It has been a year since a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was supposed to allow food to flood into the ruined territory, yet widespread hunger persists there.
Masri has little choice. Without the kitchen run by humanitarian groups, she and her eight children would have "nothing at all," the 35-year-old told AFP.
Each day she sets out early in the morning and returns in the afternoon, this time bringing four containers of rice, lentils and a little chicken, which the family throws itself at.
Among them is her husband, wounded in both legs by an airstrike, meaning he "cannot go and fight with the others" to get food.
This will be the only meal of the day for the family of 10, living in a tent in Khan Yunis. There was no breakfast and they will have no dinner.
The children of Nihaya Al-Masri, a 35-year-old displaced Palestinian woman from Beit Hanoun, share a meal provided by a charity kitchen in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 6. AFP-Yonhap
What little flour they have, Masri explained, has to be rationed.
In August 2025, a United Nations-backed body, the IPC, declared a state of famine in Gaza, though Israel quickly denounced it as a lie.
By December, the U.N. had lifted that declaration, saying that the ceasefire had allowed in enough supplies over the course of two months to ease conditions.
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry organization responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, told AFP that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was stable.
But Shaun Hughes, of the U.N.'s World Food Programme, was less sanguine.
The food security situation, he said, "is still extremely serious."
The most recent figures, from July, show that "1.4 million out of the population of about 2.1 million people are acutely food insecure," he said, with 200,000 of them "just one step below famine."
'Shameful'
While some food is getting in, a lack of sufficient nutritional variety continues to pose a health threat.
"Dietary diversity is a major food security issue in Gaza," Hughes said.
Nihaya Al-Masri, a 35-year-old displaced Palestinian woman from Beit Hanoun, waits to receive food for her family at a charity kitchen in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 6. AFP-Yonhap
"You cannot survive on dry goods and wheat flour and bread alone. Particularly children, particularly pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, they need the micronutrients that come with high protein foods, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits," he explained.
Masri said that her children, aged between 3 and 14, "dream of eating fruit" but the family doesn't have the means to buy any.
She said one of her sons suffered from malnutrition during the 2025 famine, although "little by little, his condition is improving."
Malnutrition isn't only caused by a lack of food, but also essential nutrients. It weakens the immune system of children, making them vulnerable to illnesses and stunting their growth.
"Repeated bouts of acute malnutrition amongst children is something that human beings just don't recover from," Hughes said.
Cognitive and physical impairments "continue into later life," he added.
At Khan Yunis' Nasser hospital, the head of the malnutrition unit, Israa al-Najjar, told AFP she had "observed an increase in syndromes and conditions" linked to malnutrition that affect the immune system.
Nihaya Al-Masri, a 35-year-old displaced Palestinian woman from Beit Hanoun, sweeps the floor of the makeshift shelter where she lives with her husband and their six children in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 6. AFP-Yonhap
In a report published on Thursday, the day after the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war, Medecins du Monde published a study that found 93 percent of pregnant or breastfeeding women had symptoms of anemia, which is closely linked to malnutrition.
Just 17 percent had a sufficiently varied diet to meet their nutritional needs, the group found.
All the while, Masri has kept visiting the community kitchen, despite asthma leaving her exhausted.
Her children spend their days collecting "pieces of nylon, bits of cardboard and chunks of foam" to try and reinforce their tent, which is in a poor state.
She said it was "shameful" that her children had to do so.
"I swear to God, this isn't normal."