“She was still holding on to the plastic plate”

A child collects food at a charity kitchen in Nuseirat refugee camp, 6 April 2025.
Moiz Salhi APA images

Sabreen Abu Mustafa stood in front of her makeshift tent of nylon tarp and wood in mid-April, holding a photo of Sarah, her 8-year-old daughter, who is now being treated at a field hospital in Khan Younis.

On 7 April, Sarah and Sabreen, 42, had gone to the charity kitchen about 100 meters from their tent in the al-Mawasi area west of the city.

All across Gaza, charity kitchens have been set up to provide cooked meals to those who have been forcibly displaced by Israeli military strikes and who are living nearby, often in tents. The meals are simple, such as lentils and rice and beans, and are served by volunteers.

“Sarah and I were standing in line like every day, and suddenly, there was a loud explosion, fire and dust filled the air, and then I saw Sarah lying on the ground, bleeding,” Sabreen said.

It was around 1 pm, Sabreen added, recalling that a crowd of dozens people had gathered around the kitchen, which was now “a massacre site.”

Muhammad al-Hajj, who was volunteering at the kitchen that day, told The Electronic Intifada in mid-April that when the explosion hit, he “fell to the ground and tucked my head between my legs. When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t believe what I saw. People who were just in line were now dead or wounded, and blood was flowing over the food.”

The attack killed seven people and injured many more.

Sabreen was injured in her leg and shoulder, and Sarah had a head injury that she continues to receive treatment for.

“I just wanted to feed my children,” Sabreen said. “Before the war, I used to cook everything for my children – meat, chicken and fish. But now, I can’t even remember the last time we had any of those foods.”

Because Israel has blocked the entry of aid, including food, to Gaza since 2 March – and with no plans to allow its entry in the near future – charity kitchens are a lifeline for many.

Yet, since the beginning of the Gaza genocide, they have also been the targets of Israeli strikes.

Children killed

Israel has attacked six charity kitchens in Gaza since 20 March, killing at least 30 people, including the seven killed on 7 April.

Among those killed on that day was Doaa Abu Jamaa.

“She came every day to get a meal for her family,” volunteer Al-Hajj said. “I found her lying on the ground, her face covered in blood. She was still holding on to the plastic plate.”

Doaa was 7 years old. Her mother, Mariam Abu Jamaa, told The Electronic Intifada that Doaa was the middle child of four siblings.

She loved to draw and play with her dolls, some of which she had brought along when her family was displaced from their hometown of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, in mid-March.

When Mariam heard the explosion, she rushed out of her tent toward the kitchen to find Doaa. She didn’t find her there, and only later did she learn that a passerby had carried her daughter, who was soaked in blood, to a nearby hospital.

But Doaa was already lifeless.

“She loved to draw big houses, open windows and bright suns,” Mariam said. “She would tell me, ‘Mama, when the war ends, I want to go back to our home and to my school.’”

Al-Hajj said that the charity kitchens are the only source of food for people in the area.

“There are no jobs, no open stores, no aid,” he said. “Imagine – people getting killed just because they want to eat.”

Return to the massacre site

Days after the attack, Sabreen returned to the charity kitchen to get meals for her children.

Her daughter Sarah remains in the hospital, in and out of consciousness.

“Every day I go to the hospital and ask the doctors: Will she open her eyes again? Will she run again?”

Sabreen’s husband, a taxi driver, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023. Their home in the al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis was later destroyed in an airstrike in March 2024.

“Sometimes I feel like I failed as a mother. I can’t protect [my children] from hunger or bombs. But I wake up every morning because I am still their mom,” Sabreen said.

The seven people killed on 7 April include three children – Doaa Abu Jamaa, Doaa Jamaa Muhammad Yahya, Bilsim Yahya al-Karimi – and four adults – Muhammad Arafat, Mahmoud al-Karimi, Yahya al-Karimi, Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Aql.

Abdullah Younis is a journalist in the Gaza Strip.