The United Nations is warning that famine in Gaza is “almost inevitable.” Palestinians living in Gaza are struggling with extreme shortages of food, clean water, and medicine. Several countries, including Jordan, France, Egypt, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates, and now Germany, are coordinating airdrops of humanitarian aid to help alleviate the crisis, and the U.S. military is working to a build a temporary port on Gaza’s coastline to bring in additional aid. Critics have pointed out that airdrops and a temporary pier are insufficient, dangerous, and haphazard operations compared with ensuring a steady and reliable supply of aid delivered by trucks, which might be achieved by a cease-fire agreement. Gathered below are recent images from the growing crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza on the Brink of Famine
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![Children stand at the front of a crowd that pushes forward, holding out bowls and pots to receive food.]()
Read morePalestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 5, 2024. #
Mohammed Salem / Reuters -
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![People on a dirt road look up toward parachutes falling toward distant buildings.]()
Read moreParachutes carry humanitarian-aid packages to the ground after being dropped from a plane, as Palestinians wait to receive them in Gaza City on March 9, 2024. #
Mahmud Isa / Anadolu / Getty -
![A view of a makeshift-tent city near existing buildings, with a moonlit cloud in the background]()
Read moreA view of makeshift tents set up by Palestinians that migrated to the south of the Gaza Strip in search of safety, in Rafah, on February 24, 2024. #
Abed Zagout / Anadolu / Getty -
![A young person pulls a piece of wood from the rubble of a destroyed building.]()
Read morePalestinian children collect wood, paper and cardboard to use as fuel, scavenging through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli attacks, in Gaza City, on March 5, 2024. #
Dawoud Abo Alkas / Anadolu / Getty -
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![Two children carry plastic tubs in a street as others pass nearby.]()
Read morePalestinian children who have taken refuge in Rafah due to Israeli attacks carry food distributed by charitable organizations, in Rafah, Gaza, on February 19, 2024. #
Abed Zagout / Anadolu / Getty -
![A military aircraft drops dozens of crates attached to parachutes.]()
Read moreThis picture, taken from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, shows a military aircraft dropping humanitarian aid over the Palestinian territory on March 12, 2024. #
Menahem Kahana / AFP / Getty -
![People run on a beach toward parachutes carrying aid packages falling into the surf.]()
Read moreThis image grab from an AFPTV video shows Palestinians running toward parachutes carrying food parcels, airdropped from U.S. aircraft onto a beach in the Gaza Strip on March 2, 2024. #
AFP / Getty -
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![A woman bakes bread on a stone over a wood fire.]()
Read moreA Palestinian woman who took refuge in the city of Rafah bakes bread over a wood fire inside a makeshift tent, on February 18, 2024. #
Abed Zagout / Anadolu / Getty -
![A young boy who is suffering from malnutrition lies on a bed, receiving treatment at a health-care center.]()
Read moreA Palestinian boy who is suffering from malnutrition receives treatment at a health-care center in Rafah on March 4, 2024. #
Mohammed Salem / Reuters -
![Children stand in a line, waiting beside water jugs that are being filled by a person with a hose.]()
Read moreChildren wait for hours in distribution lines to gather enough water and food for their families, in Rafah, on February 25, 2024. #
Abed Zagout / Anadolu / Getty -
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![A group of six men stand in a street talking. Each wears a black balaclava over their face. One carries a rifle while the others carry long sticks.]()
Read moreMasked members of the so-called "Popular Committees of Protection" patrol the streets of Gaza's southern city of Rafah on March 6, 2024. These groups have sprung up in Rafah in recent days, acting to maintain security and control skyrocketing prices of food items in street markets. #
Said Khatib / AFP / Getty -
![A large crowd gathers near two trucks, with many people carrying away bags of flour.]()
Read morePalestinians carry bags of flour from an aid truck near an Israeli checkpoint in Gaza City on February 19, 2024. #
Kosay Al Nemer / Reuters -
![An aerial view of many makeshift tents]()
Read moreAn aerial view of makeshift tents set up in the El-Mavasi district of Rafah, Gaza, on February 9, 2024 #
Abed Zagout / Anadolu / Getty -
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![Smoke rises from an explosion in a Gaza neighborhood, seen from a distance.]()
Read moreA picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing during an Israeli bombardment over Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on February 11, 2024. #
Said Khatib / AFP / Getty -
![A young person sits beside a wood fire, holding a pan on a grill over the flames.]()
Read moreA Palestinian family who left their homes due to the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has their sahur (pre-dawn) meal with za'atar, pepper sauce, a few pieces of bread, and tea, during the holy month of Ramadan, at Gaza's Salah al-Din shelter, on March 12, 2024. #
Dawoud Abo Alkas / Anadolu / Getty -
![People in a crowd hold up plastic tubs while waiting for food handouts.]()
Read morePalestinians hold empty containers while they line up to receive food being distributed by aid organizations on the second day of Ramadan, in Rafah, on March 12, 2024. #
Jehad Alshrafi / Anadolu / Getty -
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![Two men lean over the rubble of a destroyed building, picking out round loaves of bread.]()
Read moreMen salvage bread found amid the rubble of the Abu Anza family home that was destroyed in an overnight Israeli air strike in Rafah on March 3, 2024. #
Said Khatib / AFP / Getty -
![A view out the open rear door of a military aircraft as aid packages attached to parachutes are dropped over a beach, seen below]()
Read moreA U.S. Air Force plane drops humanitarian aid for Gaza residents, in this screengrab from a video released on March 5, 2024. #
U.S. Central Command via X / Reuters -
![Several people are seen in the foreground, looking toward six parachutes in the sky beyond.]()
Read morePeople watch as the U.S. military carries out its first aid drop over Gaza on March 2, 2024. #
Kosay Al Nemer / Reuters -
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![A person peers out from behind a hanging blanket, as others gather in a hallway.]()
Read moreDisplaced Palestinians take shelter in a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Rafah, on March 3, 2024. #
AFP / Getty -
![A platter of food cooks inside a wood-fire oven.]()
Read moreA group of volunteer Palestinian women in Gaza prepare food to distribute to families who fled Israeli attacks and took refuge in Rafah, as part of preparations for the upcoming holy month of Ramadan, on March 10, 2024. #
Jehad Alshrafi / Anadolu / Getty -
![People sit side by side on the ground, along a row of food plates, sharing a meal among refugee tents.]()
Read morePalestinians share an Iftar meal, the breaking of fast, on the first day of Ramadan, at a camp for displaced people in Rafah on March 11, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. #
Said Khatib / AFP / Getty -
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