In Gaza, where war and siege have strangled every lifeline, hunger is no longer an abstract fear—it is a daily, living reality. With border crossings sealed since March and aid deliveries halted, residents have turned to the earth itself for survival, gathering wild herbs to feed their families in the absence of flour, vegetables, or any form of protein.

Mallow, sorrel, purslane, chamomile, and even mulberry leaves now serve as emergency substitutes for basic food items. These plants, once dismissed as poor man’s fare, have become Gaza’s last defence against starvation. A UN report on 12 May warned that nearly two million people now face famine, with close to half a million suffering from catastrophic hunger. Malnutrition is spreading fast, with tens of thousands of children and mothers in critical need.

Fatima Obaid, a mother of six from Al-Daraj, survives by foraging on her sister’s land. “I make sour pies with clay, salt, and wild herbs. It’s all we have left,” she says. In nearby Abasan, farmer Sabreen Qublan, whose land was destroyed in the fighting, now bakes mallow pies in a clay oven. “No meat, no canned food. These herbs are now our only sustenance.”

In a displacement shelter, grandmother Ansam Atallah cooks mulberry leaves to mimic stuffed vine leaves. “It doesn’t taste the same,” she says, “but it fills the stomach. We’re not eating for taste anymore—just to stay alive.”

These families are not just enduring famine—they are surviving a man-made catastrophe. Gaza’s people now ask the world not for pity, but for action: how much longer must we eat from the ground while the world looks away?