CBS: Food crisis in Gaza impacts aid groups in Chicago area

By Sabrina Franza | July 28, 2025 / 5:53 PM CDT / CBS/AP

Images of starving children have been coming out of Gaza, and the situation abroad is impacting families and aid groups in the Chicago area.

Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine in Gaza, where Israel has restricted aid because it says Hamas siphons off goods to help bolster its rule, without providing evidence for that claim. Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including from close allies, who have called for an end to the war and the humanitarian catastrophe it has spawned.

The Israeli military began a limited pause in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day as part of a series of steps that it says would give the United Nations and other aid agencies secure land routes to tackle a deepening hunger crisis. 

Israel said Monday that more than 120 truckloads of food aid were distributed by the U.N. and aid agencies in the Gaza Strip, French news agency AFP reported. 

Both aid groups and people with family in Gaza described the situation as the worst it has ever been.

William Asfour, operations coordinator at the Council on American Islamic Relations-Chicago, said many of his relatives have died in the conflict so far. Now, he worries his surviving family could starve before aid gets in.

"They're rationing off of expired canned goods. They are surviving on lentils. They're making it stretch. You know, there's people who haven't had bread in several days," Asfour said. "I have this survivor's guilt here in America. I just feel helpless."

The United Nations' food agency welcomed the steps to ease aid restrictions, but said a broader ceasefire was needed to ensure goods reached everyone in need in Gaza.

An aid group said the trucks that are lining up.

"It's not a logistical problem.  It's not because we don't have the capacity to do it," said Anastasia Moran, advocacy director for the aid group Med Global. "We've got aid workers on the ground who are mobilized, who have the capacity as soon as we get permission."

Med Global teams have been in Gaza delivering medical care to about 4,000 patients — especially expectant mothers and children.

"In the last month alone, we've seen a tripling in malnutrition cases in our clinics," Moran said. "In the end stages of malnutrition — what you think of when you see those awful images of kids that are skin and bones — that's what we're now seeing more and more of."

Moran said Med Global is running out of supplies. She said their trucks have not gotten permission from Israel to deliver.

"Those kids, food doesn't help them. I mean, it's too late," Moran said. "They need medical care. They need specialized nutrition services that we can provide. They need professional aid workers and health workers who know how to treat those cases and save those kids' lives."

In terms of how families at home can help, donations do allow groups like Med Global to mobilize quickly and bring in perishable goods as soon as they get the OK to do so.