In the desolate ruins of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Umm Muhammad’s daughter Hala assembles scraps of wood and chunks of foam to build a fire.
Proper housing and basic infrastructure are nowhere to be found. Their family of 11 is living in a tent alongside heaps of concrete and mangled steel that now lie where their home once stood.
What they do have: flour, water and oil, which means Umm Muhammad can bake bread for her family.
But for how long?
“The food aid is what’s keeping us alive,” Umm Muhammad said. “We eat and drink for the whole month from aid. Without that, it will be very difficult… aid makes us live.”
That lifeline for Umm Muhammad and hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians is now under existential threat as Israel lays siege to Gaza once again.
The Israeli government announced Sunday that it was shutting down the supply of food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza in a bid to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages and impose new conditions on the extension of the ceasefire, a day after the conclusion of the first phase of the deal.
“As of this morning, the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza will be prevented,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday, accusing Hamas of controlling “all of the supplies of goods that are being sent to the Gaza Strip” and “turning the humanitarian aid into a budget for terrorism directed against us.”
Hamas rejected those claims as “baseless lies.” Multiple humanitarian aid groups operating inside Gaza have said they distribute the aid they receive directly to those in need.
The United Nations and other aid groups accuse Israel of violating international law by blocking the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and say Israel is once again using starvation as a weapon of war, a charge Israel has denied. These same organizations have accused Israel of restricting or creating hurdles to the entry of aid throughout the war.
Twenty-five thousand trucks carrying food, hygiene supplies, tents and other necessities entered Gaza during the first six weeks of the ceasefire, stemming massive food insecurity and somewhat alleviating dire humanitarian conditions that had gripped Gaza.
Amid the rubble, families celebrating Ramadan have been able to put food on the table for the break-fast meal of Iftar. Markets had recently begun to come back to life. And regular aid distribution provided a thin safety net.
Israel’s decision to block aid into Gaza is already reverberating throughout the strip.
Food prices are already sharply rising in Gaza’s markets. And aid organizations are scrambling to ration minimal stockpiles of aid.
The World Food Programme said that bakeries and soup kitchens in Gaza could be forced to shut down in less than two weeks if more aid does not reach the strip.
Israel has threatened to take additional steps if Hamas does not agree to its demands, including cutting off electricity and water supplies to Gaza.
US-based group Human Rights Watch warned Thursday that Israel’s blockade would shut down most of the Palestinian territory’s water infrastructure within a week by starving it of fuel.
The specter of a return to war also now looms large, especially after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to give Israel the weapons it needs “to finish the job” in Gaza unless Hamas immediately releases all of the remaining hostages held there.
But for some in Gaza, Israel’s decision to block food aid into Gaza already amounts to a return to war.
“They are fighting us through our food,” Abu Muhammad said, standing atop a pile of rubble in Jabalya. “Netanyahu is now publicly saying ‘I will close the crossings and starve you.’ No one is standing against him.”
“Who is standing with us?” he asks. “We only have God – God is with us.”
