It was their only meal Wednesday — it was all they could afford.

“My girls suck on their thumbs because of how hungry they are, and I pat their backs until they sleep,” she said.

After being displaced five times by Israel's relentless bombardment, the Eids reside in central Gaza, where aid groups have relatively more access than in the north, which has been largely isolated and heavily destroyed since Israel launched a deadly assault in early October. But nearly everyone in Gaza is going hungry these days. In the north, experts say a full-blown famine may be underway.

On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, accusing them of using “starvation as a method of warfare” — charges Israel adamantly denies.

In Deir al-Balah, the Eids are among hundreds of thousands sheltering in squalid tent camps. The local bakeries shut down for five days this week. The price of a bag of bread climbed above $13 by Wednesday, as bread and flour vanished from shelves before more supplies arrived.

The United Nations humanitarian office warned of a “stark increase” in the number of households experiencing severe hunger in central and southern Gaza. This appeared to be linked to the robbery at gunpoint of nearly 100 aid trucks last weekend in southern Gaza, close to Israeli military positions. Israel, which appears to have taken no action to stop the looting, has created a desperate situation in which people are fighting over the little aid that it has allowed to enter the besieged enclave.

Aid groups say the looting is one of many obstacles to delivering food and other vital aid to the territory's 2.3 million Palestinians. They also have to contend with Israeli movement restrictions and the heavy damage caused by Israel's relentless bombardment of roads and critical infrastructure.

For the Eids, hunger is the daily routine
 

For months, Yasmin and her family have gone to bed hungry.

“Everything has increased in price, and we cannot buy anything," she said. “We always go to sleep without having dinner.”

She misses coffee, but a single packet of Nescafe goes for around $1.30. A kilogram (2 pounds) of onions goes for $10, a medium bottle of cooking oil for $15 — if available. Meat and chicken all but vanished from the markets months ago, but there are still some local vegetables. Such sums are astronomical in an impoverished territory where few people earn regular incomes.

Crowds of hundreds wait hours to get food from charities, which are also struggling.

Hani Almadhoun, co-founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen, said his teams can offer only small bowls of rice or pasta once a day. He said they “can go to the market on one day and buy something for $5, and then go back in the afternoon to find it doubled or tripled in price.”

Its kitchen in the central town of Zuweida operated on a daily budget of around $500 for much of the war. When the amount of aid entering Gaza plummeted in October, its costs climbed to around $1,300 a day. It can feed about half of the 1,000 families who line up each day.

The sharp decline in aid, and a U.S. ultimatum
 

Israel has imposed a 13-month siege on the Gaza Strip since October last year, pushing most of the territory to the brink of famine. The amount of aid entering Gaza plunged to around 1,800 trucks in October, down from over 4,200 the previous month.

At the current rate of entry, around 2,400 trucks would come into Gaza in November. Around 500 trucks entered each day before the war.

The U.N. says less than half the truckloads are actually distributed because of relentless Israeli bombardment, denial of movement requests, and the ensuing breakdown of law and order. Gaza's police have vanished from many areas after being targeted by Israeli airstrikes.

Israel's deadliest war on Gaza has killed over 44,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry—figures that the UN considers reliable.

The United States warned Israel in October that it might be forced to curtail some of its crucial military support if Israel did not rapidly ramp up the amount of aid entering Gaza. But after the 30-day ultimatum expired, the Biden administration declined to take any action, claiming there had been some progress.

Israel, meanwhile, passed legislation severing ties with the UN Palestinian refugee agency known as UNRWA, the largest humanitarian organization operating inside the Gaza Strip.

Israeli news outlets have reported that officials are considering plans for the military to take over aid distribution or outsource it to private security companies.

However, Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister and a former voice of moderation in the far-right government before his dismissal this month, warned on X that outsourcing aid distribution to a private firm would be a “euphemism for the beginning of military rule.”

As that debate plays out in Jerusalem, less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away from central Gaza, most Palestinians in the territory are focused on staying alive in a war with no end in sight.

“I find it difficult to talk about the suffering we are experiencing. I am ashamed to talk about it,” said Yasmin’s husband, Hani. “What can I tell you? I’m a person who has 21 family members and is unable to provide them with a bag of flour.”

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.