Gaza becomes 'most expensive place to eat in the world'
Under a suffocating Israeli blockade, food, fuel and humanitarian aid have become luxuries for Palestinians.
The result? People are starving. Not metaphorically, not gradually – literally. What little food remains has been pushed to black-market extremities, as shown by prices shared with Metro by Christian Aid workers on the ground.
A 25kg sack of flour is now more expensive than a Michelin-star dinner in Paris, costing as much as £414, compared to £8.80 before the start of the war.
A kilogram of sugar is £88, in stark contrast with the price of £0.60 less than two years ago.
Staples like oil, bread and eggs – when available – have all become entirely out of reach for Palestinians.
Speaking of the impact of the unfolding famine, Ranin Awad who works for Christian Aid's local partner in Gaza, Women's Affairs Centre (WAC), said: 'My colleagues and I only eat one meal a day, depending on what we can afford and what is available. We are dealing with fatigue, dizziness, and overwhelming weakness.
'Recent months have been filled with death, fear and displacement. It is like a nightmare that has devastated our hopes, memories, and houses.
'Our home was destroyed and we were forced to flee many times. All of our memories have been obliterated.
'My son was just a month old when the war began. He had a new, lovely room with pretty furniture and toys. There is nothing left for him now, all is ash.'
Gaza's Health Ministry has recorded six more deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition, including two children.
This brings the total number of starvation deaths to 133, which included 87 children.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said: 'People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.'
He said that one in five children in Gaza City is malnourished – a number increasing every day that unhindered humanitarian aid is denied.
In a post on X, Lazzarini warned: 'When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, and famine silently begins to unfold.
'Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they do not get the treatment they urgently need.'
Amid the starvation, Egyptians have launched an initiative called 'From sea to sea – a bottle of hope for Gaza'.
Plastic bottles are being filled with grains, rice and lentils and hurled into the Mediterranean Sea in the hope that they will reach the enclave – even though the Israeli Defence Forces have banned Palestinians from entering the water.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
While largely symbolic – aimed at highlighting Israel's purposeful starvation of civilians, several bottles appear to have reached Gaza.
A video shared on TikTok by creator Saqer Abu Saqr, from the north of the enclave, shows him thanking Egyptians for sending him a bottle filled with yellow lentils.
Waving the gift, he says: 'This came by the sea from the young people in Egypt. Thank you, may Allah bless you.'
Another Palestinian creator with some 2.5 million followers on Instagram, Mohamed Al Khalidi, shared a video titled 'The most expensive city in the world.'
Walking through Gaza City's crumbling streets, Mohamed highlights some of the prices of basic goods – £37 for a kilogram of flour, £66 for a kilogram of sugar, and £22 for a kilogram of lentils. https://www.instagram.com/p/DMShGudtnwh/?hl=en
He says: 'The famine is intensifying significantly. Even the simplest items now cost 10 times their normal price, and only a few things are available. Everything is scarce. I keep thinking about those who have no money at all.'
Israel has been facing growing criticism over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the United Nations over the weekend to stop blaming his government for what the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described as 'man-made mass starvation'.
This came hours after the military said it would pause operations for 10 hours a day in three areas – Al Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City – and permit new aid corridors.
Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 25 tonnes of food and supplies to the enclave – which is still less than what one of the hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks stuck outside of Gaza could bring in if allowed.
But Lazzarini stressed that aid airdrops will not reverse the starvation and added: 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction and screensmoke. More Trending
'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need.
'Allow the UN including UNRWA and our partners to operate at scale and without bureaucratic or political hurdles.
'At UNRWA, we have the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light to get into Gaza.
'Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer. It's more dignified for the people of Gaza.'
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
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Sky News
11 hours ago
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Why are airdrops on Gaza so dangerous?
The United Nations has condemned airdrops on Gaza, warning they risk killing the starving Palestinians they are intended to help. Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel parachuted aid packages into the territory for the first time in months at the weekend amid claims a third of the population has not eaten for days. But Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general for the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), has said they "will not reverse the deepening starvation" and often do more harm than good. "They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians," he wrote in a statement on X. What is an airdrop - and why are they dangerous? There are several ways humanitarian agencies and international allies can deliver aid to regions in need - by land, by sea, or by air. While parachuting in supply packages from planes may look impressive, airdrops are "fraught with problems", Sky correspondent in Jordan Sally Lockwood says, and often used as a "desperate last resort". "Foreign nations know airdrops are a deeply flawed way of delivering aid," she says. "Palestinian sources tell us the aid that's been dropped so far is not reaching the most vulnerable. They are an attempt to get something to a few - often viewed as a desperate last resort. Gaza is at that point." Military analyst Sean Bell says that delivering aid by air is ideally done when planes can land on a runway - but Gaza's only landing strip in Rafah was shut down in 2021. The alternative is "very dangerous", he warns. "Aircraft flying relatively low and slow over a warzone isn't very clever. When these parcels hit the ground, there's a significant danger of them hitting people." Crucially, they can only deliver a fraction of what lorries can. "The really big issue is aircraft can only deliver one truckload of aid. Gaza needs 500 truckloads a day, so it's 0.2% of the daily need," Bell adds. They also risk falling into the wrong hands and ending up on the black market. "Some of it has been looted by gangs and is on the black market already," Lockwood says. Why are they happening now? Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza at the beginning of March, reopening some aid centres in May, but with restrictions they said were designed to stop goods being stolen by Hamas militants. Israeli authorities control the only three border crossings to the strip: Kerem Shalom in the south, Crossing 147 in the centre, and Erez to the north. Since the current conflict with Hamas began in October 2023, humanitarian agencies and world leaders have repeatedly accused Israel of not allowing enough deliveries through. Mr Lazzarini says the UN has "the equivalent of 6,000 trucks" in neighbouring Jordan and Egypt "waiting for the green light to get into Gaza". Israel says it has commissioned a "one-week scale-up of aid", having conducted its own airdrops on Saturday. In a statement over the weekend, the Israeli Defence Forces said it will work with the UN and other aid organisations to ensure aid is delivered but no more details were given. Meanwhile on Sunday, it began daily 10-hour pauses in fighting in three areas of Gaza to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation. 1:19 According to the Hamas-run health ministry, 133 Palestinians had died of malnutrition by then, including 87 children. Doctors Without Borders warned on Friday that 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are malnourished. Israel says there is no famine in Gaza. 4:21 What are in the airdrops and who is behind them? Air packages are largely being delivered by C-130 planes. Jordan is reported to be using 10 and the UAE eight. They can carry eight pallets of goods each, weighing around eight tonnes in total, according to Lockwood, who is on the runway at Jordan's King Abdullah II airbase. There are no medical supplies in the packages, she says, only dried food, rice, flour, and baby formula. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK will help with airdrops - but no British aircraft have been seen in Jordan so far. He will discuss the matter with US President Donald Trump during talks in Scotland on Monday. The RAF delivered 110 tonnes of aid across 10 drops last year as part of a Jordanian-led international coalition - but it is not clear what level of support will be offered this time.
Metro
17 hours ago
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Gaza becomes 'most expensive place to eat in the world'
'Where in the world is food more expensive than London, Dubai, and New York?' It sounds like a setup to a cheap joke but the harrowing answer is Gaza. Under a suffocating Israeli blockade, food, fuel and humanitarian aid have become luxuries for Palestinians. The result? People are starving. Not metaphorically, not gradually – literally. What little food remains has been pushed to black-market extremities, as shown by prices shared with Metro by Christian Aid workers on the ground. A 25kg sack of flour is now more expensive than a Michelin-star dinner in Paris, costing as much as £414, compared to £8.80 before the start of the war. A kilogram of sugar is £88, in stark contrast with the price of £0.60 less than two years ago. Staples like oil, bread and eggs – when available – have all become entirely out of reach for Palestinians. Speaking of the impact of the unfolding famine, Ranin Awad who works for Christian Aid's local partner in Gaza, Women's Affairs Centre (WAC), said: 'My colleagues and I only eat one meal a day, depending on what we can afford and what is available. We are dealing with fatigue, dizziness, and overwhelming weakness. 'Recent months have been filled with death, fear and displacement. It is like a nightmare that has devastated our hopes, memories, and houses. 'Our home was destroyed and we were forced to flee many times. All of our memories have been obliterated. 'My son was just a month old when the war began. He had a new, lovely room with pretty furniture and toys. There is nothing left for him now, all is ash.' Gaza's Health Ministry has recorded six more deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition, including two children. This brings the total number of starvation deaths to 133, which included 87 children. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said: 'People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.' He said that one in five children in Gaza City is malnourished – a number increasing every day that unhindered humanitarian aid is denied. In a post on X, Lazzarini warned: 'When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, and famine silently begins to unfold. 'Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they do not get the treatment they urgently need.' Amid the starvation, Egyptians have launched an initiative called 'From sea to sea – a bottle of hope for Gaza'. Plastic bottles are being filled with grains, rice and lentils and hurled into the Mediterranean Sea in the hope that they will reach the enclave – even though the Israeli Defence Forces have banned Palestinians from entering the water. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video While largely symbolic – aimed at highlighting Israel's purposeful starvation of civilians, several bottles appear to have reached Gaza. A video shared on TikTok by creator Saqer Abu Saqr, from the north of the enclave, shows him thanking Egyptians for sending him a bottle filled with yellow lentils. Waving the gift, he says: 'This came by the sea from the young people in Egypt. Thank you, may Allah bless you.' Another Palestinian creator with some 2.5 million followers on Instagram, Mohamed Al Khalidi, shared a video titled 'The most expensive city in the world.' Walking through Gaza City's crumbling streets, Mohamed highlights some of the prices of basic goods – £37 for a kilogram of flour, £66 for a kilogram of sugar, and £22 for a kilogram of lentils. He says: 'The famine is intensifying significantly. Even the simplest items now cost 10 times their normal price, and only a few things are available. Everything is scarce. I keep thinking about those who have no money at all.' Israel has been facing growing criticism over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the United Nations over the weekend to stop blaming his government for what the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described as 'man-made mass starvation'. This came hours after the military said it would pause operations for 10 hours a day in three areas – Al Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City – and permit new aid corridors. Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 25 tonnes of food and supplies to the enclave – which is still less than what one of the hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks stuck outside of Gaza could bring in if allowed. But Lazzarini stressed that aid airdrops will not reverse the starvation and added: 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction and screensmoke. More Trending 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need. 'Allow the UN including UNRWA and our partners to operate at scale and without bureaucratic or political hurdles. 'At UNRWA, we have the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light to get into Gaza. 'Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer. It's more dignified for the people of Gaza.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: What's stopping Keir Starmer from recognising Palestine as a state? MORE: Keir Starmer says state is 'inalienable' right of Palestinian people MORE: Pro-Palestine protesters block Israeli cruise ship from docking on Greek island
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