GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In the early morning hours of Nov. 17, dozens of locals rushed to the Palestinian Youth Center Association, located on Al-Wahda Street in Gaza City, to register for food aid coupons. This has become habitual every 2½ months. This time around, however, there was no registration. There was no aid.

“The last time these families received aid was in August. Family members refuse to believe that the project has finished. They think that we are lying and that we do not want to help them,” said Fayez Ziyara, a member of the association’s board of directors, in an interview with Al-Monitor.  

He explained that around 600 families came to register over the last two days and added that this aid would be provided by USAID’s Palestinian Community Assistance Program (PCAP) project. According to Ziyara, the project helped farmers and large segments of society. “But the project was being gradually stopped, until it was completely shut down in September, as the blockade intensified and poverty increased,” he explained.

Aida al-Moonasira, Mona Wahdan and Hannah Safi are among the people waiting at the association's door. “The association told us to come in mid-November, and here they are telling us that there is no registration anymore! Our financial condition is very tough,” they told Al-Monitor. The three women explained the difficulty of not having an income, which is causing financial hardship on their families.