By Wafa Aludaini
Hundreds of displaced Palestinians lined up in front of the Tekiyyah, or charity kitchen, in the city of Deir Al-Balah, waiting in long queues for their daily free meal cooked by a group of volunteers. The cooks use about 18 large cookers heated on firewood stoves, which are used due to the lack of cooking gas, to prepare various meals from ingredients available in the blockaded enclave.
Alia Qaddoumi, a displaced Palestinian mother, says, “The Tekiyyah is the only hope to feed my family, my sick mother, and 4 daughters after losing everything. I owned a clothes shop, but it was destroyed by the occupation airstrikes in Gaza City. We moved to the south, but the occupation army took everything from us, including money and gold, at the checkpoint after asking us to put all of our bags on the ground and telling us to move before shooting at us. I go early with my little daughter and wait for at least 2 hours daily because I fear the food will finish before my turn.”
Alia recalled the occasion when she came late and found the pots empty. She cried, but when her neighbors found out, they shared their meal with her. Since then, she has been keen to come early to avoid shortages.
Before the current ongoing Israeli atrocity, 80% of Gaza’s population relied on international aid as Israel tightened its years-long siege, imposed in 2007. Now, virtually all of the population of Gaza depends on international aid for survival.
Hot meals cooked in the south of Gaza consist of basic food items like rice, pasta, lentils, and legumes, but in the north, these items are in short supply or sold at exorbitant prices and mostly consist of canned food.
Adli Fatair told the PIC that if there were no Tekiyyah, he and his family would die of hunger. Adli is a retired PA employee from Gaza City. “I am not displaced, but I can’t feed my family because of the cash liquidity crisis. I can’t take my monthly salary, so I rely on the Tekiyyah to feed my family. My eight-year-old son walks every day for nearly a kilometer to the area where Tekiyyah is to get the lunch meal for us. I can’t buy food or wood to cook.”
The closure of the crossing by the Israeli occupation authorities, destruction of factories, economic stagnation, loss of land, restricted trade and access to resources, along with high unemployment and poverty rates have caused scarcity of food and increase in the prices of the available items. The liquidity crisis and the destruction of several banks have exacerbated the situation, affected purchasing, and pushed people to the verge of famine. According to the World Food Program, “96 percent of the population in Gaza are facing acute food insecurity. Food and water are running out, shelters for displaced people are massively overcrowded and, without fuel, there is no electricity. Health services are collapsing”
The Tekiyyah was an important religious building in Islam, founded in the Ottoman era that flourished in Anatolia and Ottoman-affiliated countries. It was built specifically to host those who lived in isolation for worship, such as Sufis, and to help travelers. Typically, a large structure with a central hall and smaller rooms on either side, the building was intended for public services, including hospitals, kitchens, and lodging, which are often attached to them. The Tekiyyah is a Turkish word, but its origin is still unclear. Some say it came from the Arabic verb that means “rely on” because its people depended completely on it. The Ottoman sultans, Mamluk princes, and prominent Egyptians continued donating to the buildings and their residents.
During the Ottoman era, the Tekiyyah played another role, treating and curing patients, a role that hospitals played in the Ayyubid and Mamluk eras. With the beginning of the Ottoman era, the matter of the hospitals fell under neglect. The traditional Tekiyyah became, in its most common meaning, an establishment for providing free popular meals to the poor, without having a direct relationship with Sufism. Tekiyyah became famous and commonly-known in most Islamic cities, including Syria, Palestine, Iraq, the Maghreb countries, Egypt, and others.
In Gaza, Takiyyah kitchens started to flourish in 2016 when the Israeli siege on Gaza was tightened, but at the time there were just 2 or 3 throughout Gaza, and they ran by groups of volunteers who depend on donations to keep working.
During the ongoing assault, they have spread widely, and most of the people in Gaza depend on the services for free food.
Now there are hundreds of Tekiyyahs across the battered Gaza Strip to meet the needs of the starving people, as Israel weaponizes food and starvation. These initiatives not only feed the Gazans but also support their resilience and steadfastness.
-Wafa Aludaini is a Gaza-based journalist. She contributed this article to the PIC.
