How Much Does a Gaza Family Need to Survive Each Month?

When people find my website, the first thing most of them want to know is a simple number. How much does it actually cost to keep a family alive in Gaza right now? Not a general estimate. A real number.

I can give you that. My name is Mohammed Z. Al-Shanti. I am an agricultural engineer from Northern Gaza. I live with my wife, my five-year-old son Ibrahim, and my infant daughter. Our home was destroyed by airstrikes. We have been displaced six times. I have been running a verified donation campaign since 2023 and I post receipts for everything.

Here is our monthly budget in full. Every line is based on something I have personally paid for.

The Non-Negotiables

There are three costs that cannot be cut, cannot be delayed, and cannot be worked around. If these three things are not covered, the family does not survive in any meaningful sense. These are shelter, water, and food.

Shelter: $500 Per Month

Our apartment is damaged. One room has holes in the walls. The ceiling leaks. Before the war, an apartment like this would rent for maybe $100 to $150 a month. Right now it costs $500 because destroyed housing has made anything with walls and a roof extremely scarce relative to the number of displaced families looking for somewhere to stay.

There is no negotiating this price down. I have tried. The landlord knows I have no alternatives. If we do not pay $500 on the first of the month, we lose the apartment. With a newborn, losing the apartment is not an option I can allow.

Water: $180 to $250 Per Month

No running water in the building. We buy it from trucks that come through the neighborhood. One truck delivers 1,000 liters and costs $60. We need roughly three deliveries per month at minimum. When trucks are scarce or do not come on schedule, we buy from whatever source is available, sometimes at higher prices.

The $250 figure is the realistic monthly cost during normal months. Some months it is less if the trucks come reliably. Some months it is more because we have to buy emergency water from other sources when the trucks do not show up for several days.

Food: $250 to $350 Per Month

Our diet is extremely basic. Bread made from flour. Rice when we can find it. Canned goods occasionally. We almost never eat meat. Fresh vegetables are rarely available and when they appear the prices are far beyond what we can sustain regularly.

Two 25-kilogram bags of flour per month costs $76 to $90 depending on the current price. That is the foundation of our diet. Add cooking oil ($20), canned goods ($40 to $60), sugar and tea ($20), and small amounts of whatever else is available, and the food budget sits between $250 and $350 per month.

I never thought I would spend so much of my mental energy thinking about flour. Before the war, buying food was automatic. Now each purchase is a calculation.

The Essential But Variable Costs

Baby Supplies: $80 to $120 Per Month

My daughter was born three months ago. She needs diapers, which cost $25 for a pack that lasts about two weeks. She needs formula supplements when my wife cannot produce enough milk, which is a real issue under this level of stress and malnutrition. Baby hygiene products. These costs add up quickly and they cannot be eliminated because there is no alternative to keeping a newborn clean and fed.

Medicine and Hygiene: $50 to $100 Per Month

Basic medications cost far more than before the war. Antibiotics that cost $3 before now cost $20 to $40. Paracetamol, vitamins, wound care supplies for minor injuries, basic hygiene products — these add up. We try to keep this number down by only buying what we genuinely need, but some months a child gets sick or an injury needs treatment and the number spikes.

Emergency and Repair: $0 to $200 Per Month

Some months nothing breaks and no emergency happens. Other months the ceiling leaks badly and we need plastic sheeting and tarps. Or a window gets cracked in a blast and needs temporary repair. Or the baby needs an unexpected medical visit. These costs are unpredictable but they happen regularly enough that they have to be part of any honest budget.

The Complete Monthly Picture

What Different Donation Amounts Actually Accomplish

When I tell people this number, they sometimes say they cannot afford to cover a whole month. That is completely fine. The budget above does not need to be covered by a single person. It is usually covered by many people each giving what they can.

Here is what specific amounts do in practical terms.

Why I Share These Numbers Publicly

Some people find it uncomfortable that I share such specific financial details about my family's situation. I understand that. But I made a deliberate choice to be completely transparent because I think it is the only way to earn trust from strangers on the internet who have every reason to be skeptical.

When you know that $60 is exactly one water truck delivery, and then you see a receipt on my GoGetFunding page for a $60 water purchase dated two days after a donation arrived, the math is transparent. You can trace it. You can verify it. That specificity is what makes direct giving different from a donation to a large organization where your money disappears into a general fund.

I also share these numbers because I want people to understand what Gaza actually costs right now. Not the headline statistics, not the aid organization estimates. What a father actually spends on flour and water for his children every month.

What About the Future?

One thing I think about often is what happens when Ibrahim can go back to school. School supplies, notebooks, pencils, a bag — we estimate that will cost around $150 when schools reopen. That is not in the monthly budget above because it has not been possible yet. But it is something we are trying to plan for.

The other thing I think about is my daughter growing up in this. She is three months old. The costs for her will change as she grows. But right now, every month that passes where she is fed, clean, and sheltered is a month she gets to grow into the person she is going to become. That is worth everything to me.

If you can contribute any part of this monthly budget, I am genuinely grateful. You are not just giving money. You are giving my family time. Time to survive until things get better. I believe they will get better. We just need help getting there.