Food for thought? Gaza's kitchens on verge of shutting down, famine nears

Community kitchens are critical lifeline, provide meals for Gazans

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CAIRO: It took five hours of queuing at a community kitchen in Gaza's Nuseirat district for displaced grandmother Um Mohammad Al-Talalqa to get one meal to feed her hungry children and grandchildren.

But finding food may be about to get even tougher: Gaza's community kitchens -- lifelines for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians after 18 months of war -- may soon have no more meals to provide.

Multiple aid groups said that dozens of local community kitchens risk closing down, potentially within days, unless aid is allowed into Gaza, removing the last consistent source of meals for most of the 2.3 million population.

"We are suffering from famine, real famine," said Talalqa, whose house in the Gaza town of Mughraqa was destroyed by Israel. "I have not eaten anything since this morning."