In Gaza, a sack of flour has become the symbol of both hope and despair. With famine sweeping across the besieged enclave, thousands of Palestinians are forced to risk death each day just to secure enough food to keep their families alive.

Since March, the Israeli-imposed blockade has strangled the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Only a trickle of trucks are allowed through, often late at night, in areas surrounded by tanks and drones. These so-called "aid zones" have become death traps, where civilians face gunfire, chaos, and violence in their desperate attempt to access food.

Mahmoud Nabhan, a father of four, has faced this nightmare repeatedly. “I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve gone and returned with nothing but bruises and fear,” he told a local news agency. “Sometimes, we reach the trucks first, but then armed gangs appear and take everything. Then, the shooting starts. It’s as if there’s a silent agreement between the occupation and the looters.”

Many never return. The Ministry of Health reports nearly 400 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured while trying to access flour. Most were unarmed civilians, parents, children, the elderly, whose only crime was seeking food.

With prices skyrocketing, one sack now costs 1,550 shekels, compared to 20 before the siege, ordinary Palestinians cannot afford to buy flour on the black market, where looted aid is resold at impossible rates. Some, like Mahmoud al-Batsh, try to gather the courage to go to the distribution points. “The moment I arrived, I realised it was madness. The trucks were stripped bare in minutes, and anyone holding onto a sack was attacked. We’re left with nothing, just hunger and grief.”

In a place where hunger has become a weapon, the journey for a sack of flour is no longer about food. It is about survival, dignity, and the unbearable cost of simply staying alive.