Food returns to Gaza. Is it getting to the people who need it?

0:00Today on State of the World. Food returns to Gaza. Is it getting to the people who need it?

0:10You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Tuesday, January 13th. I'm Greg Dixon. In a few minutes, we visit a haven for cross-cultural conversation in Tel Aviv. First, it's been three months since the ceasefire in Gaza began, and food that is desperately needed after being largely blocked for two years is returning by the truckload. NPR's Eya Batrawi in Dubai and Anas Baba in Gaza City take a look at where the food is going. This open-air market in Gaza City is colorful. There's apples, avocados, oranges, and bananas for sale.

0:54Just a few months ago, none of this existed here. People were starving. Experts said there was a famine.

1:06NPR's reporter in Gaza, Anas Baba, sees 25-year-old Ahmed El Ghul staring at a stand selling eggs on the street. Eggs only reached Gaza City last month, many weeks into the ceasefire.

1:24El Ghul tells him it costs the equivalent of more than$7 for 15 eggs. He just doesn't have that kind of money.

1:37He says he sees the produce too, but he swears he hasn't tasted any. It's too expensive. There is more food now in Gaza, and UN-backed experts say there's no longer a famine. But they say that no child in Gaza is getting the nutrition they need, and that two-thirds are suffering from what they call severe food poverty. The UN says families are relying on aid to survive, unable to afford what's being sold on the market. Those commercial goods are exclusively from Israeli traders and brought in by Palestinian merchants. And it is serving up a tableau of food.

2:12At Cousins Bar and Restaurant, hamburgers, pizzas, and chicken wings are back on the menu. Alcohol is banned in Gaza, so it's not really a bar. But it is a place where young people hang out. Showermer stands and grilled meat restaurants have also popped up. Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian says 4 ,200 trucks of goods entered Gaza last week. But Israel does not provide a breakdown of how many are carrying aid and how many are commercial goods from Israeli traders. Still, she says, You see supermarkets thriving, restaurants extremely busy, having bakeries open nonstop throughout different cities in the Gaza Strip.

2:49I advise you to look at social media to see the reality on the ground as well. The reality on the ground is that a burger, fries, and Coke will set you back more than$30 in Gaza City today. Few can afford prices like this. And at one of Gaza's new sweet shops, an Israeli surveillance drone buzzes overhead as those who can afford to dig into warm Palestinian baklava. At supermarkets in Gaza now, basics that were hard to find in the war are back on the shelves. Shampoo, conditioner, soap. There are some luxuries too. Chocolate Nutella spread and the latest iPhone 17. But these commercial goods from Israel are not what's most in demand.

3:31That would be tents.

3:39Majdi Al-Bardawid is a 62-year-old who survives off a pension. He's at the market buying a few vegetables for dinner. He says even if this food was free, people can't find proper tents to sleep under. Most Palestinians are displaced, and makeshift tents have flooded this winter. Progress on the ceasefire is stalled, delaying reconstruction. Israeli troops still occupy more than half of Gaza. So as Israeli goods flow in, antibiotics, tents, and fuel for cooking gas are hard to find. Aya Batrawi, NPR News Dubai, with Anas Baba in Gaza City. Ever since the Hamas-led attacks of October 2023 triggered the war in Gaza, tensions between Palestinians and Jews in Israel have increased.

4:22But in the neighborhood of Jaffa, south of central Tel Aviv, there is a place where the two groups feel safe to interact, in a nail salon. And Pires Hadil Al-Shalchi takes us there. The phone calls start early at Salon Jaffa.

4:40Owner Imbal Blech hustles to schedule her services. The salon is small, brightly lit, dog-eared magazines stuffed behind the mani-pedi chairs, and a small room for facials in the back. Blech is an Israeli Jew, 48 years old, with a mound of messy hair. She wears leggings and a black T-shirt emblazoned with the word Shalom, or peace in English letters. Every morning before the rush of clients, she sets up two benches and a small table outside the salon. She says the benches are as much a part of the salon as the pedicure stations. I need to smoke, I need to drink coffee, I need to be outside, I need a bench.

5:19The table is new, even though it doesn't look like it. Here she holds court, greeting passers-by who sometimes sit with her for a coffee in a spot of gossip. The things that these benches have heard, oh my God. It's like stools in bars. The Jaffa flea market is gritty and chaotic, made up of wide alleys flanked by restaurants, thrift stores and noisy bars. Kitchen workers rest their feet near the salon. And the old woman who owns a thrift store sits among piles of old clothing nearby, people watching. You would miss Salon Jaffa if you walked by too quickly and if Blech's raucous laugh didn't draw you in.

5:59Started 14 years ago, she says she wanted her salon to be a safe space for women. You don't have to tuck your tummy when you get in. You can be like just you. It's a safe space for women. The whole world outside is for the guys. This is the place for the women. After the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Salon Jaffa unexpectedly became a safe haven for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, some of whom say they've been discriminated against, and Jews who are critical of Israel's actions. Mashour Azeli is a 39-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel who works in construction in Jaffa and often stops by at Blech's bench for a catch-up.

6:37He says he's had Jewish customers cancel business with him because he's an Arab.

6:45I just feel a comfort with Imbal that I don't with other Israelis right now, he says. Some Israeli Jews say they've been afraid to vocalize their anti-war opinions publicly, that they can be viewed as traitors and harassed by other Israelis, but not a Salon Jaffa. We sit here and we speak and we have our own opinions. We know that outside you feel isolated, but in the Salon you can feel that it's normal, that we are the normal people. And I'm going to cry. Blech says this coexistence happened by chance. It wasn't like I planned it. Now that I think of it, my first employee was a Muslim. And after that, I had another three or four.

7:31They were the face of the salon. I used to call them, we're the face of the salon. She says Salon Jaffa has become more than just a place to get manicures. I learned during COVID that I opened the salon no matter what. I have to do it because it's home for a lot of people, so I have to open. Blech says she wants to one day close shop and move to Crete. But until then, you can find her on the bench in the Jaffa flea market. Hadil Alshalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv.

8:03That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.