In the Facebook comments under one of my posts a reader shared an incredible Youtube video with me yesterday, showing functioning restaurants and cafes in the Gaza Strip, actively promoting their services on Instagram.
You can watch it yourself here (I'm also going to post stills from other posts further below in the article):
In fact, the video was so shocking to me that I started having serious doubts about its credibility.
Perhaps the social media accounts were hijacked by Israeli hackers, abusing Palestinian profiles to spread propaganda while their lives – and businesses – lie in ruin?
Maybe they're using old content to pretend it is happening right now, to distract from the reported humanitarian disaster in Gaza?
As much as I side with Israelis, I am keenly aware that they too engage in propaganda, often exaggerating certain things and, in some cases, making them up to win sympathy.
Surely, starving Palestinians, barely surviving in the rubble could not be living like this? And they wouldn't even know their suffering is being abused by their oppressors cynically using old videos to deceive the world.
If people were dying due to lack of food how could their compatriots not share what they have and limit business operations for the greater good of national survival?
So, before I decided to post this – and risk making a monumental fool out of myself – I have spent several hours trying to locate these businesses (which is harder than it seems, because the addresses don't really work in Google Maps, and are usually quite vague – saying something along the lines "located near a junction of street A and B").
Then I had to look for the latest available satellite data (which was still only from December 2024) to check if they aren't, in reality, just a pile of broken concrete and twisted metal where they once used to operate.
But no – out of seven clearly identified restaurants and cafes I have managed to verify with high enough certainty that five are, indeed, operational right now, one went silent in May (perhaps due to pressure from Hamas) and one announced suspension five weeks ago.
Those are:
- Thailandy / Thailandi Gaza
- Pistachio Gaza
- O2 Gaza
- Happy Chocolate
- Cafe Estkana
- Roma Restaurant (stopped updating social media in May)
- Ice Cream Hamada (suspended operations 5 weeks ago)
There are many more (like this hot dog place), but these are covered in the video and I believe are enough to get the point across.
Let's start with the best known of all: Thailandy (or Thailandi) Restaurant in Rimal district of Gaza City.
This place was actually bombed by IDF in May, when pro-Palestinian outlets decried it as destruction of the last functioning restaurant in Gaza:
The somewhat poorly justified attack (IDF claimed it was targeting Hamas operatives, but hit a dense civilian area with the restaurant and a nearby market) claimed 33 lives and Thailandy – then already operating in a semi-open-air fashion due to war damage, had to close.
For two weeks.
The restaurant shared a post following the attack, lamenting the victims and damage:
However, due to its open air nature and the fact that it wasn't a direct hit but rather one in vicinity, it returned to operations rather quickly, reopening by May 25.
These are some of its posts from the past 2 months:
And here are more recent examples - from TODAY'S reels:
And a few selected screengrabs from earlier videos (you can explore them yourself on their Instagram page):
This is what's going on right in the centre of Gaza, while you're being brainwashed by the UN itself that it is the hungriest place in the world right now.
Of course, just to prove that this isn't some archival footage, here's a screenshot of the actual surroundings of the place – yes, it is a pile of rubble, showing that the video is, indeed, recent:
Let's look at some more examples, just so you don't think it's one elite location while the rest of the country is dying.
Roma Restaurant – which was destroyed in its original place but rebuilt in a lovely green orchard about six months ago, posted this in mid-May:
And this 3 days earlier:
And here's the location:
How would you fancy some dessert for a change? Here's O2, a patisserie / ice cream shop in Gaza City in its update from June:
This might be too much even for me:
"Starving" crowds gorging on sweets:
Again, the place is clearly operating out a damaged building, so it's easy to see that it's not some ancient video that someone dug out to manipulate public opinion.
How about some real excess, from Cafe Estkana in April? Here apparently celebrating their first month in business and, presumably, showing off the scale of consumption of their customers.
Have you ever seen a starving nation which is opening even more cafes? Here's "Happy Chocolate" celebrating their new location in Khan Younis just two weeks ago:
I could share more, but you have the links above and by now I think you get the gist.
The discrepancy between what we're being told and what is actually happening on the ground in Gaza is humongous.
Yes, it's nothing extreme for businesses to operate in times of war – and even these admit many times in the comments that their operations are not easy and prices are high. They don't always have all the ingredients in stock and things fall in and out of menus.
And yes, even Palestinian society has its elites, its middle class and its destitute.
But it is clear that the situation in Gaza is a far cry from a humanitarian catastrophe that would amount to genocide.
And how could Israel be blamed for starvation when Palestinians themselves have no qualms about spraying banana pancakes with chocolate syrup while their compatriots allegedly die to lack of food?
But the real question is: what are the international organisations and governments doing? And who is really in charge of the narrative?
What the hell is going on?
