Cook the garlic in huge metal utensils arranged in a long row, and heated over a wood fire, then add tomatoes and canned peppers with handfuls of spices, and stir the sauce with huge spoons. What is being prepared here is not just food, it is a lifeline. The American Near East Refugee Foundation (Anira) opened this community cuisine in the Al-Zawaida neighborhood in central Gaza, after the ceasefire began six weeks ago.
This American humanitarian organization also has another cuisine in the south of the Gaza Strip, which the BBC visited in early May. At that time, after two months of the Israeli blockade that prevented all other food and goods from entering, stocks were diminished.
Aneera offers a hot meal daily to more than 20,000 people. “We’ve moved from 15-pots in the past, to 120 containers a day now, targeting more than 30 camps for the displaced,” says Sami Matar, a team leader at Anira.
Matar adds, “We are now serving more than 4,000 families, compared to just 900 families six months ago.”
Access to food has been a constant concern since the start of the war in October 2013, due to Israel’s strict restrictions on the entry of supplies through Gaza’s crossings.
This exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation, and famine was declared in Gaza City last August, with the threat of it spreading to other parts of the Strip.
The United Nations continues to call for increased aid access.
