Life without refrigerators: Gaza residents fight heat and food spoilage

What Happened

Displaced families across Gaza, including in tents in Gaza City and central camps, are enduring prolonged electricity and fuel shortages caused by Israel’s siege, leaving refrigerators unusable and forcing them to grapple with rapid food spoilage in extreme heat. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that only 1 million litres of diesel entered Gaza in early June 2026, far below requirements for essential services. Residents such as Malak al-Zaanin and Manal Hamad described watching food and medicine spoil, paying inflated sums for temporary cooling, or resorting to storing items in idle fridges used as cupboards. Some, like Mohammed al-Zaanin, have turned small freezers into businesses charging phones or chilling water, but high generator and electricity costs remain prohibitive.

Key Actors

Why It Matters

The collapse of refrigeration deepens Gaza’s food and health crisis, forcing families into impossible choices between spoilage and spending scarce resources on cooling. It magnifies civilian suffering beyond direct military operations, fuels dependency on aid, and may intensify international scrutiny of the siege’s humanitarian impact.

Watch For

Monitor OCHA and other UN agency reports on fuel and electricity deliveries as summer heat worsens; any Israeli easing of the blockade or new aid corridors; outbreaks of waterborne or food-borne illness; and diplomatic initiatives addressing the humanitarian situation.