The Electronic Intifada 26 March 2025
The Sheikh Radwan market west of Gaza City on 3 March.
ActiveStillsIn Gaza, the struggle for food is about more than satiating hunger; it is a battle for human dignity.
Israel has tightened its chokehold on Gaza’s crossings, preventing the entry of commercial goods and humanitarian aid. The renewed attacks, which have killed hundreds of people over the past week, signal a resumption of the war in which starvation was used as a deadly weapon.
Not that the war ever really ended – the struggle to fill our bellies is one that families are still up against, with no reprieve during Ramadan, during which our fasts are traditionally broken by communal meals.
Finding new ways to prepare familiar dishes with extremely limited ingredients is one means by which people are resisting.
They improvise on recipes by using canned instead of fresh meats, or onion and garlic powder when the vegetables – basic ingredients in our cuisine – are nowhere to be found.
With sugar expensive and scarce, people turn to honey or date molasses, received by some families in aid packages, to create dishes that satisfy their bodies and ease their psychological pain.
Traditionally a staple food in our cuisine, fish has been extremely difficult to obtain because of the siege on Gaza’s coastal waters that is enforced by lethal fire by the Israeli navy.
My father, who knows that it is my favorite food, looks for fish in the market but finds none.
Food in Gaza is not merely sustenance; it is a symbol of steadfastness. The kitchen is not just a place for cooking; it is an open arena to protest the harshness imposed by Israel’s genocide and severe restrictions which remain ongoing.
Cooking oil a luxury good
One of the greatest challenges faced by Palestinians living in Gaza is the exorbitant cost of basic items.
Cooking oil has become a luxury good, with families sometimes going months without being able to purchase any. A liter can cost $30 or more, depending on the status of Gaza’s crossings and the prices demanded by exploitative traders, forcing people to use it sparingly.
When Ramadan began earlier this month – which was soon followed by Israel’s total closure of the crossings – the price of cooking oil spiked once again and fresh food such as chicken and meat became prohibitively expensive or unavailable once more.
This phase of struggle has been the hardest, with shortages of essentials and prices still sky high, no reconstruction and our only option to get anywhere is on foot.
And now that Israel collapsed the January ceasefire, which didn’t last for a full two months, there is little relief to be found in Gaza, where there is little to be found of much of anything.
Mortadella for chicken
With meat and chicken currently unavailable, families are resorting to some of the approximations of familiar dishes that have characterized our cuisine during the war.
One of these dishes involves chicken or beef mortadella, a processed food product more readily available than fresh meat, to prepare alternative recipes mimicking roasted chicken.
Known as “fake chicken,” the dish is prepared by slicing the mortadella into long, thin pieces. The strips are seasoned with chicken or shawarma spice blends, salt and black pepper. After that, we coat it with bread crumbs and deep fry it in oil.
The technique is similar to how chicken breasts were commonly prepared before the war. With the mortadella, the result is a dish resembling crispy chicken fingers.
People cook in a clay oven in a displacement camp in Khan Younis on 31 December 2024.
ActiveStillsBread – essential to every meal in our cuisine – disappeared from our plates at a certain point during the war.
Early on, Israel bombed Gaza’s bakeries and deprived them of electricity, fuel and flour: a recipe for famine.
During the period of no bread and no flour, families who were able to buy the scarce quantities of pasta available on the market – like mine in northern Gaza – would grind the pasta and use the resulting pasta “flour” to bake bread.
Under famine conditions, the quality of the light but chewy pasta bread loaves, which was neither bad nor good in flavor, was irrelevant, given the lack of alternatives to alleviate our hunger.
When some of the bakeries reopened around this time last year, bread became available in Gaza once again. But the bakeries were unable to meet the high demand; some people were even crushed to death after being trampled in a crowd waiting for bread.
While some families are able to buy bread, others make bread at home using flour and yeast and bake the loaves in a clay oven amid the lack of gas and electricity.
The firewood used to bake in clay ovens, like everything else in Gaza, comes at a high price and is therefore difficult to obtain. Some families pay a fee to use communal clay ovens to bake their bread.
People are making do with whatever is available in the market.
Rummaniyeh, a savory sauce in Gaza with a rich, tangy flavor, is traditionally made with fresh pomegranate. Because the fruit is difficult to obtain these days, some people have resorted to using jarred pomegranate sauce as a substitute.
However, like many other food items, jarred pomegranate sauce is expensive, with four ounces costing about $15. But one jar can last for multiple meals and allows us to mark a special occasion and maintain variety in dishes while so many foods remain unavailable.
Bulgur as chicken breasts
The shortage of meat and poultry in Gaza has led many families to seek alternatives to ensure diverse meals. Among these alternatives, bulgur (dried cracked wheat) is an ideal choice.
We prepare the “chicken” by soaking the bulgur in water until it becomes soft. Then, we grind it, add spices and a little bit of bread crumbs. After that, we mix everything together and shape it into long fingers. We then dip it in flour and water, followed by more bread crumbs.
Finally, we cook the fingers in a deep fryer, giving it the crunchy outer texture and soft inside that is reminiscent of fried chicken.
Despite the harsh reality, people in Gaza insist that life must go on and that food must remain food, regardless of the circumstances.
Nada Hamdouna is a translator working in Arabic, Turkish and English in Gaza.
