Gaza's mothers battle Israel's ruthless starvation policy by reinventing meals with barely anything

As the genocide in besieged Gaza approaches its third year, the spectre of famine looms. 

More than two million people remain trapped between death and hunger, with Palestinian mothers becoming a symbol of resilience, cooking from nothing and inventing substitutes to feed their families.

From lentils and pasta, they bake bread; from spices, they create flavour; and from nothing, they make something — all out of necessity, as since March, there has been no consistent entry of flour, sugar, or vegetables into the Strip due to what Amnesty International has described as Israel’s “starvation policy.”

In a once-bombed house her family managed to patch together, 50-year-old Um Mohammed kneads what looks like dough.

“This isn't flour, it’s ground lentils,” she says, smiling. “I had to bake bread like this because there’s no flour, and my little grandchildren need to eat. Its colour isn’t white, and it doesn’t taste like regular bread. When it dries, it gets hard, but there’s no other way.”

At times, she soaks pasta in water until it softens, mixes it with a small amount of flour — often infested with bugs — and kneads it into bread.

“It’s better than lentils,” she explains. “But pasta isn’t always available; it’s expensive. I had never baked with anything but wheat in my life, but hunger is merciless.”

Starvation and disease 

These acts of daily improvisation are unfolding against the backdrop of what UN experts describe as an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

“The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza,” UN-backed food security experts said in a recent alert, calling the situation “unlike anything we have seen in this century.”

UN Secretary-General Guterres also weighed in on the catastrophe, saying, “The trickle of aid must become an ocean. Food, water, medicine, and fuel must flow in waves and without obstruction. This nightmare must end.”

Against this horrific backdrop, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) platform reported that two out of three famine thresholds have already been reached in Gaza: a sharp decline in food consumption and widespread acute malnutrition.

The IPC also noted that while famine has not been officially declared, as deaths from malnutrition cannot be conclusively proven, there is growing evidence that “widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease” are driving an increase in hunger-related deaths, which is the third famine indicator.

The statistics paint a stark picture: one in three people are now going without food for days at a time. Since April, hospitals have treated over 20,000 children for acute malnutrition, with at least 16 children under the age of five dying from hunger-related causes since mid-July.

This crisis worsened significantly after Israel imposed a total blockade in March 2025, cutting off aid flows during ceasefire negotiations with Hamas. Although the full blockade was lifted in May, Israel has continued to restrict humanitarian access, allowing only limited aid to enter the enclave. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the alert “confirms what we have feared,” namely that Gaza is on the brink of famine.

“The facts are in, and they are undeniable,” he added. “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes.”

Despite Israel announcing tactical pauses to allow more aid, the numbers remain insufficient. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israel-backed organisation, has distributed between 1 and 1.7 million meals daily to Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents, averaging less than one meal per person per day.

Before the genocide, around 500 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza daily. In recent weeks, only 1,200 trucks have entered over a span of seven days.

The humanitarian crisis has been further compounded by deadly violence targeting civilians seeking aid. Since late May, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed while attempting to access aid.

Of those, 859 deaths occurred “in the vicinity” of GHF distribution sites and 514 along food convoy routes, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The OHCHR reported that most killings were committed by Israeli forces, calling the hunger crisis “human-made” and the “direct result of policies imposed by Israel,” adding that ongoing violence has made distributing aid even more dangerous and difficult.

A test of humanity and the will to survive

As international pressure mounts for unrestricted humanitarian access, the women of Gaza continue their quiet revolution in makeshift kitchens, creating meals from substitutes — transforming lentils into bread, beans into falafel, flour into cheese, and nutritional supplements into sweets — all out of necessity, often with limited or spoiled ingredients, to keep their families alive.

Speaking to The New Arab, Fatima, a 37-year-old mother of five from Deir al-Balah, has found a way to make a version of falafel — once the cheapest and most common meal in Gaza, now a rare luxury — using whatever ingredients she can find.

“We have no chickpeas,” she tells The New Arab. “So I soak beans, lentils, and some peas. Parsley is too expensive, so I skip it. I grind everything with powdered onion and garlic — since fresh ingredients are no longer available — add falafel spices, and fry them. They taste like real falafel. My kids were so happy; they told me it was delicious.”

Food substitutions extend beyond falafel and have become routine across the Strip. For example, a traditional omelette — known in Arabic as 'Ejjeh' — is typically made with cauliflower, onions, parsley, eggs, and flour. Today, it’s made with peas.

Alaa, 40, a mother of six from northern Gaza, describes the adjustments she has made in response to limited ingredients.

“My kids were tired of lentils, beans, and peas, so I tried my friend’s recipe: pea omelette,” she tells The New Arab. “I had some flour and onions, but no eggs, so I used baking powder to make it fluffier. I fried it in oil and it turned out tasty. My husband and kids loved it, so I made it again and again. It felt good to make them happy.”

For other mothers, the emotional toll of improvising meals under siege has been overwhelming. In northern Gaza, Um Abdullah, a mother of seven who lost her husband in a November 2023 airstrike, shares her heartbreak.

“My youngest kept asking for cheese,” she shares with The New Arab, with tears in her eyes. “So I mixed flour, water and salt, cooked it until it thickened, drizzled a bit of oil with oregano on top, and told him it was cheese. He believed me and ate it. I cried so much that day. Even the simplest things no longer exist.”

Some mothers have gone even further, using nutritional supplements — originally intended for malnourished children — to make small treats.

Rahab, a mother of three whose four-year-old son suffers from severe malnutrition, discovered a creative solution when her son refused to drink a vitamin-enriched powder.

“I mixed it with a little flour and milk and baked small biscuits. He was thrilled to eat something like cookies after months of having none,” she says.

In central Gaza, Um Wael used the same type of supplement to make snacks that resembled cakes.

“The kids thought it was candy,” she explains to The New Arab. “I was lucky to have dates — my husband got them through aid after a lot of effort.”

Elsewhere in Deir al-Balah, a group of women living in the same camp decided to work together to feed their children.

Nawal, 45, who came up with the idea, tells The New Arab that she suggested they combine their supplies — lentils, rice, and a bit of flour — to cook one large meal for the children.

“One day, we baked bread, made pastries with za’atar, and cooked rice with lentils. The joy on the children’s faces was unforgettable," she notes.

"Before the genocide, we baked pizza and cakes. Today, even this simple meal feels like a miracle.”

Madlien Shaqalih is a reporter based in Gaza and a TV and radio journalist

This article is published in collaboration with Egab