In the shadow of a tightening siege, Palestinians in Gaza are left to fight hunger with spoiled and overpriced flour, risking their health in a desperate attempt to survive.

At Al-Sahaba market in Gaza City, Ahmed Daloul purchased a bag of flour after careful inspection, wary of the weevils and worms that have become all too common. The vendor refused to open the bag for verification, leaving Daloul with little choice but to buy it. Minutes later, the stench and contamination forced him to return, but his request for a refund was met with rejection.

"The smell was unbearable," Daloul said. "We are reliving the famine of past sieges, and I cannot bear the thought of my children eating such poison again."

The situation is echoed in every home. Jihan Asleem, 50, resorted to buying bread from a local baker only to find it mouldy and inedible. "The markets are flooded with rotten flour," she lamented, "yet it is sold at unimaginable prices, and we are left with no alternative."

Families share infested supplies among themselves, masking the rot with vinegar and spices, knowing full well that clean flour is now a luxury beyond reach. "It’s a matter of survival," explained 60-year-old Yusra Hamada with bitter irony. "We are forced to choose between different degrees of contamination just to fill empty stomachs."

Since early March, Gaza’s crossings have been sealed off, strangling the flow of humanitarian aid and essentials for over two million people. As the siege drags on, the price of basic staples has multiplied more than twentyfold, leaving a starving population abandoned by the world, clinging to whatever they can find to keep their families alive.