Gaza food blogger serves 'hope on a plate' to war-weary kids
JERUSALEM, Israel — Sitting in a tent in southern Gaza, Palestinian food blogger Hamada Shaqoura surveys cans of beans and tinned meat and longs for something that could conjure a sense of home.
Before the war, before his house was destroyed and his family uprooted three times, the 32-year-old was a YouTuber reviewing Gaza City's buzziest burger, pizza and noodle spots.
To satisfy his craving for comfort food on a war-rations diet, he taught himself to cook using food aid packages and whatever fresh vegetable he can scrounge up.
"I had an idea to turn this canned food we have been eating for months into something new, to make delicious food for kids," he tells AFP in a video call from Khan Yunis.
Shaqoura's cuisine includes beef tacos "Gazan style", pizza wraps and a deep-fried "golden sandwich", which he films as he cooks and offers up to the tent camp's hungry children.
"Zakee (delicious)!" a boy beams in a video after biting into a sweet "fettuccine crepe" -- strips of fried batter mixed with apples and chocolate sauce.
Despite patchy internet Shaqoura offers a different side of the conflict to document what he calls "resilience and persistence" amidst the rubble of war-devastated Gaza.
Online he is known as Hamada Shoo and his blogs have attracted nearly half a million followers on Instagram, as well as donations from his fans.
"I want to feed as many mouths as I can," he said.
Barefoot children toting empty pots and bowls run through the ruins of Khan Yunis to his tent, where the war chef cooks up pea stew in huge pots over an open-pit fire.
Hunger
While the United Nations has not officially declared famine in Gaza, experts say hunger is rampant in the Israeli besieged territory with little food aid reaching the 2.4 million population.
More than 30 Palestinians have died from malnutrition since Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel set off the war that has devastated infrastructure across Gaza.
Israel denies any starvation and blames the United Nations and aid agencies for ineffectively distributing supplies.
But Palestinians have told AFP of being forced to skip meals and having to boil weeds for their children to survive.
"There is real famine" in northern Gaza, says Shaqoura who fled from there in March, and little to go around in the south of the battered territory.
He says he is determined to help feed children. "That is my motivation".
Persistence
Shaqoura, who had just got married when the war erupted and planning to work in the food industry, is one of several Gaza food bloggers.
Their goal is to try and provide through food "dignity and a sense of liberation" to beleaguered Gazans, not just comfort, he says.
Cooking something that people can identify with is part of the "everyday struggle to stay human and retain your dignity in the face of a brutal occupation intended to strip you of that humanity year after year", says Laila el-Haddad.
Gaza developed a "distinct" cuisine, with its spirit of innovation forged by two decades of Israeli blockades and sieges, said the food expert.
Shaqoura says he serves "hope on a plate" as an antidote to the deprivations and grief overwhelming Gaza.
During the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast he prepared donuts for the children to help them feel "there is something worth celebrating". On hot days he offers them refreshing lemon granitas.
His videos, he says, are meant to show the world that Gazans "are persistent strong people".
"We do our best to keep existing."
