On a warm Saturday morning in Gaza city, Saleh Sadda, 10, joins hundreds of others holding pans and waiting for food at a soup kitchen. It is the only reliable source of nourishment for his family of five, displaced from the north of the enclave and now living near Gaza’s port, once a centre for trade, now a place of survival.
“Every day I get food from the soup kitchen for my family,” Saleh told The National. “We come here because we have no money. Prices are high, people have no food.”
The Gaza Soup Kitchen has been a lifeline for many since it launched in February last year, offering hot meals to thousands of people every day. But it is now struggling, as food runs out in the enclave. Until recently, the operation served meals at 10 locations, including in Sheikh Radwan, Shati camp, Al Nasr, Rimal and its northernmost spot, Al Saftawi. This week, only five locations could open. Some are operating at just 70 per cent capacity because ingredients are increasingly scarce.
“It’s difficult to secure supplies,” said Samah Almadhoun, one of the lead chefs, as she prepared lentils and carrots. “Sometimes things aren’t available, or they’re too expensive.”
The kitchens have about 60 staff. Samah cooked alongside her husband and children, while her sister Fatin prepared rice and macaroni at a separate site. Their mother made mulukhiyah, a leafy green vegetable soup, in a bare building before distributing it to families nearby.
“Yesterday we made rummaniyeh [lentil and eggplant stew],” Samah said. “We make vegetable soup with bulgur or rice. We make summaghiyyeh [sumac stew]. Whatever we find in the market, we buy and cook.”
Global support, local impact
Despite the hardship, the kitchens have continued to operate amid Israel's war on Gaza, thanks in part to a GoFundMe campaign launched by Samah’s brother, Hani, a Palestinian-American who lives in Virginia. The campaign has raised over $4 million so far, funds used to buy ingredients such as cooking oil and support staff in Gaza.
Their family, based in the north of Gaza, paid a heavy price in the war. Two of Hani’s brothers have been killed. Four of his nieces are dead. Two more were critically injured. He said everyone he knows is displaced, and many are starving.
Born in the UAE, Hani, 44, is senior director of philanthropy at UNRWA USA, which provides support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. His family moved to Gaza when he was still in school to reconnect with their roots. Later, he earned a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor's degree in international and Latin American studies from Brigham Young University, before settling in Washington, DC. There, he began fundraising for civil rights groups, Arab and Muslim-American organisations, and Palestinian relief efforts.
Now living in Annandale, Virginia, Hani brings his fundraising experience to the Gaza Soup Kitchen. “My brother, Mahmoud, and his friends started it in Beit Lahia to serve hot meals to neighbours,” he said.
They began with four pots and a fire fuelled by scavenged wood. They dug up potatoes, bought tomato paste and cooking oil, and within hours, 120 families were fed. The next day, they served 150. Word spread quickly and demand surged. Mahmoud went out again, this time returning with leafy greens, onions and mushrooms, and cooked another nourishing dish.
Hani launched the GoFundMe campaign and by July 2024, the Gaza Soup Kitchen was officially registered as a non-profit group in the US. Transferring funds into Gaza remains a major challenge. Hani sends $15,000 every morning, navigating a complex and costly process.
“The funds go into our Gaza Soup Kitchen’s US bank account,” he explained. “From there, we use a mix of digital platforms and cash apps to move the money. But there are daily limits, so we have to use several methods.”
Once the money reaches exchange shops in Gaza, it is handed to Hani’s family, after a hefty cut is taken. The fees range from 25 per cent to 40 per cent, meaning a $1,000 transfer might result in only $600 in cash being received.
With no new bank accounts allowed in Gaza, the soup kitchen cannot open a local account, Hani added.
As Israel's war continues, Gaza’s food supply is disappearing. Sugar now costs $100 per kilogram. A single kilogram of flour costs about $20. Aid is trickling in. Exchange fees, inflated prices and disrupted supply chains are making it harder to stretch every dollar.
“Unfortunately, that’s the price you pay to keep people from starving,” Hani said. “It’s worth it because in some communities, children are collapsing from hunger. The elderly too.”
Despite the millions raised, not all the funds have been transferred yet. So far, more than $2 million in cash has made its way into Gaza to keep the kitchens running.
“The bottleneck is how much we can send in a day,” Hani explained. “If I could wire $1 million tomorrow, I would. But because of the limitations in the bank, we are only able to send a certain amount.”
He sends only what is needed to keep operations going, carefully balancing against fees and local prices. Some of the funds are also used to distribute drinking water and offer medical support. In one case, Hani recalled, a person collapsed while waiting for food.
“We have a medical point next to one of our kitchens," he added. "Our doctors hooked them up to an IV because it was too late for a meal. They needed medical intervention.”
Cooking through scarcity
Sourcing ingredients is another daily struggle, as Israel has severely limited how much food is allowed into the enclave.
“We do not bring anything from outside. This is not our model,” Hani said. “What we do is two things: we buy from the few farmers still growing produce – about 5 per cent of farms are functional – and we source locally from what’s left in the market.”
The team, which is based in the north, gathers ingredients from the south of Gaza. They send people to carry bags filled with produce to the north.
“Secondly, there is no supermarket any more,” Hani explained. "There are stalls in the market. We ask around: ‘Hey, I need 100kg of lentils. Do you have it?' The guy says, ‘Yes, we have a dealer for lentils. We have a dealer for cooking oil.’ Whatever we can get, we buy and cook.”
In winter, they cook with foraged greens such as mallow. Right now, the team is struggling to find basic staples including potatoes and carrots.
More than 100 aid agencies and rights groups, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, and Oxfam, have warned that mass starvation is spreading across Gaza. On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said a “large proportion” of Gaza’s population was starving.
“I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation – and it’s man-made,” he said.
Israel, however, denies blocking aid. “In Gaza today, there is no famine caused by Israel,” said government spokesman David Mencer. “There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas.”
For Hani, the goal is simple, and heartbreaking. “I just want the genocide to end,” he said.
“I’m fine with closing shop. We only exist to solve a problem. If the problem is being handled by others, we’ll step back. But right now, this work gives our team purpose. They’re exhausted, but every day they cook and feel inspired. And everybody just wants that purpose.”
