In Gaza, where hunger shadows every street and displacement camps have become cities of grief, communal kitchens once offered a flicker of relief — a bowl of lentils, a warm meal shared in silence. But now, even that lifeline is under attack.

Since October 2023, Israeli forces have targeted 29 communal kitchens and 37 aid distribution points, according to local authorities. These strikes are not random. They are part of a systematic campaign to dismantle every layer of survival — to ensure that even a bite of food is bombed before it reaches the mouths of the hungry.

In makeshift shelters, women clutch empty pots, not in search of charity but of survival. The communal kitchens, often run by volunteers and local relief campaigns, have become both battlefield and sanctuary. After every strike, they rebuild. After every disruption, they re-cook. Because in Gaza, feeding the hungry has become an act of defiance.

Alaa Abu Ouda, who leads one such campaign, calls the targeting of their kitchen “a strike against humanity.” The psychological blow, she says, was devastating — but short-lived. Volunteers returned, more determined than ever, knowing they were being targeted not because they carried weapons, but because they carried food.

For displaced mothers, these kitchens are more than food stations. They are the last thread of normality. “I just want to cook for my children again,” says one mother. “To give them a meal with my own hands. That’s all I want — not charity, not aid. Just a kitchen. Just home.” In Gaza, cooking has become resistance. And each hot meal served is a quiet refusal to surrender.