Yolande KnellMiddle East correspondent, Jerusalem
Garlic simmers in huge metal pots heated over open wood fires and set up in a long line.
Cooks add canned tomatoes and peppers with handfuls of spices, stirring the sauce with giant spoons.
What is being prepared here is not just lunch, it is a lifeline.
American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) opened this community kitchen in al-Zawayda in central Gaza after the ceasefire began six weeks ago.
The US humanitarian organisation has another kitchen in al-Mawasi in the south of the strip, which the BBC visited in early May.
Back then, two months into an Israeli blockade, preventing the entry of all food and other goods, stocks were dwindling.
Now, with more food allowed to enter, the situation has improved.
Each day, Anera feeds a hot meal to more than 20,000 people.
“We have moved from using 15 pots in the past, and now we increased to up to 120 pots in a day, targeting more than 30 internally displaced people’s camps,” says team leader Sami Matar. “We’re serving more than 4,000 families compared to just 900 families six months ago.”
Access to food has been a constant concern since the start of the war in October 2023, with Israel heavily restricting supplies allowed through Gaza’s crossings.
This has exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation. Famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August and projected to spread to other areas of the strip.
The UN continues to call for more aid to be allowed in.
On the menu today is spaghetti served with canned vegetables and tomato sauce and flavoured with generous handfuls of spices. Sami gives an approving nod as he tastes a spoonful.
But while Anera is managing to get access to more food, brought into Gaza by its partner, the US humanitarian organisation World Central Kitchen, there are still vital ingredients missing to improve people’s diets.
“We are mostly confined to cooking just three types of meals in a week: rice, pasta and lentils,” Mr Matar says. “We work hard to include vegetables like sweet peppers, onion and potatoes. This enables us to improve the taste and the nutritional value.”
“We need the food to be more diverse, to secure fresh vegetables and essential proteins like meat and chicken,” he goes on. “Those essentials are not allowed to enter Gaza for humanitarian aid distribution.”
For now, fresh meat and poultry are only being imported by commercial sellers. They are too expensive for aid organisations to buy locally.
Since the ceasefire, Anera has only once served a meal with meat, which came from tins. Anera says its kitchens also lack utensils, packaging and canisters of gas, with which it would be cleaner to cook.
Six months ago, when a BBC freelance journalist visited the al-Mawasi kitchen, horses and carts were being used to take pots of food to the camps.
Now, with some fuel entering Gaza once again, a small truck is used to transport the meals to where crowds are waiting for them.
The pasta is a popular choice.
A little red-haired boy squeals with delight. “Sweetcorn and everything!” he exclaims.
Other children grin as they immediately sit on the ground and start slurping on the spaghetti, eating it with their hands.
In the past week, the UN says that the daily number of meals distributed in Gaza through a network of kitchens, run by different organisations, has reached 1.4 million – up from fewer than one million meals just a month ago. The total population of the strip is over two million.
Anera has a list of those vetted to receive aid in the tent camps. Most people come from northern Gaza, they have had their homes destroyed in the war, lost loved ones, and have no money.
“We live off the community kitchen, the takia,” says Aida Salha from Gaza City. “They bring us food, water and bread. There is bread maybe once a week or once every four days.”
The mother-of-six is living with other relatives in a borrowed tent, which she says collapsed on them during the recent heavy rain.
“I swear nothing has changed since the ceasefire,” she continues. “We were only happy that the constant bloodshed stopped.”
Aid agencies are pushing for Israel to open up all five crossing points into Gaza; currently only three are operating.
They also want restrictions to be eased on the operations of some established humanitarian organisations – caused by Israeli registration issues – so that they can bring in their own supplies.
For now, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) reports that a quarter of households in Gaza are eating just one meal daily.
It says the prices of basics such as vegetables, sunflower oil and flour have dropped on local markets, although they remain far higher than they were two years ago, before the war.
In surveys, two-thirds of households reported difficulties buying food – in almost all cases because of a lack of cash.
“We’ve entered the third year since the war and I have no money left – no gold, no possessions. I’m totally wiped out,” says Abdul Karim Abdul Hadi, a father-of-seven from Jabalia in northern Gaza who receives food from Anera.
“My son was martyred. All four floors of our house were destroyed. We lost two cars. We are totally destroyed. We live in a catastrophic situation every day.”
With the onset of cold, wet weather, life has been getting harder.
Aid workers like Sami Matar, do their best to help those living in the camps.
“The conversations we have with the families in the camps are heartbreaking,” he says.
“The overwhelming feelings are deep uncertainty and exhaustion. They see no clear path to return to their homes. They worry how to keep their children warm and fed.”
After the UN Security Council approved the Trump blueprint for Gaza this week, people are waiting to see what happens next.
They know the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains shaky but desperately need it to stick.
“The future hope is very simple,” Mr Matar says. “People want to live in a safe secure place and be able to cook a hot meal for their children with love and dignity.”
