A taste of hope: Gaza residents eat chicken and vegetables for first time in months

Families tell The National how eating a hearty meal has given them a small glimpse of happiness amid the war

Hamza Al Ghazali, 18, from Gaza city ate chicken for the first time in six months after receiving a coupon from a charity. Photo: Mohammed Abu Doon

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After enduring months of scarcity, the arrival of aid lorries bringing chicken and vegetables has restored hope to some families in war-ridden northern Gaza as they enjoyed dishes they had not been able to cook for months.

For Mohammed Al Muqayed, 42, a father in Jabalia camp, the three chickens he received felt like a long-awaited blessing. “They have been distributing [them] in the north for a while, but my turn finally came on Wednesday,” Mr Al Muqayed told The National.

His wife, four daughters and two sons were delighted when he arrived home with the supplies. “As soon as I got home, my youngest daughter, Leen, grabbed the chickens and started carrying them around, laughing wholeheartedly.” His excitement resonates with others in the camp who have been waiting to reclaim some sense of normality through their meals.

After standing in the hot sun for about three hours at a distribution centre run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Mr Al Muqayed and his family were then faced with the dilemma of how to cook the chickens. With no refrigerators or electricity, they had to cook all three chickens in the same day.

“We decided on fattah, a dish that didn’t require any expensive ingredients,” he said, referring to the high cost of fruit and vegetables for sale in the markets.

About a year into the war in Gaza, Palestinians struggle to access food supplies because the fighting has restricted the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid. Families must queue for hours to receive meals and water from makeshift charity kitchens. The UN has repeatedly warned of catastrophic levels of food insecurity in the enclave.

“Before the war, we ate meat every two or three days. Now we wait five months or more between meals that include chicken or meat,” said Al Muqayed.

About six kilometres away, in Gaza city, Marwan Ahmed was equally jubilant when he received a coupon for fresh vegetables.

“I hurried home with the package to surprise my children,” Mr Ahmed told The National. His son Zain and daughter Ameera excitedly ran towards the door to unpack bags of potatoes, cucumbers and tomatoes, he added.

But the stark reality of their circumstances loomed large as he lamented his inability to provide for his children as he once had. “I used to give them everything they wanted. This war has robbed us of so much,” Mr Ahmed said. As the family prepared their first salad in months, alongside baked potatoes, they worried about not receiving any meat coupons.

While access to food appears to have slightly improved, the UN has continued to warn of severe levels of malnutrition among children. “The nutrition situation in Gaza is one of the most severe that we have ever seen … it is important to remember that nearly half of Gaza’s population suffering from this devastation are children,” Unicef director of child nutrition Victor Aguayo said in New York earlier this month.

Samar Haboob, 11, had been craving chicken for a long time. “I had been looking at pictures of chicken dishes on my mmm’s phone and telling her I wished I could have them,” she said.

“After we cooked it with yellow rice, we invited my grandma and grandpa over to share it with us,” she told The National, her eyes lighting up with the excitement of eating together as a family, as they had before the war. “I miss the kebabs, grilled food, and all the fruit and vegetables we used to eat. Now, because of the occupation, we are deprived of everything.”

“We ate chicken for the first time in days after a 6-month break. We received one chicken for 7 people through a voucher from charitable organisations,” Hamza Al Ghazali, 18, from Gaza city said.

While rejoicing in eating a dish with meat, he said finding joy in something that used to be the norm before the war left a bitter taste. “I can't imagine that we have reached this stage and the world is still watching us without moving,” he said of the lack of a solution to end the war that has killed more than 41,400 people in Gaza.

This week, the Norwegian Refugee Council said analysis of data gathered by organisations in Gaza found that Israel was obstructing 83 per cent of food aid. “This reduction means people in Gaza have gone from having an average of two meals a day to just one meal every other day,” it said on Monday.

A record-low average of 69 aid lorries per day entered Gaza last month, it added, while more than one million people in southern and central Gaza did not receive food rations.