All bakeries in Gaza have been forced to close due to lack of flour, diesel in a month-long lockdown
Bakeries in the Gaza Strip were closed on Tuesday after they were exhausted from flour and diesel as a month-long lockdown on Israel that blocked food and aid into the territory.
Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami, director of the Gaza Strip Bakery Owners Association, said the closure of the remaining 19 bakeries (relying on the support of the World Food Programme) means that there will be no more operating bakeries in the territory.
“We call on the world to [Israeli] Al-Ajrami said in a statement:
Amjad al-Shawa, general manager of the network of Palestinian NGOs in Gaza, said the bakery was forced to close and the flour and diesel were closed on Tuesday.
Al-Shawa said the territory entered the “worst phase” of the war, as the suspension of aid and incoming cargo continued to worsen the conditions of its population, which was once again displaced and under Israeli bombing.
“Gaza is entering the most critical phase of its humanitarian disaster,” al-Shawa told CBC press freelancer photographer Mohamed El Saife on Tuesday.
“We warn that this will affect the lives of Gaza people, mainly children, women and the elderly.”
Aid has not entered Gaza for four weeks
Israel has not allowed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza since March 2 and has expressed its responsibility to release its remaining hostages to the Palestinian armed group Hamas – a strategy that rights groups say constitute a war crime.
The four-week closure effectively shut down all sources of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies, reaching civilians from Gaza, the longest lockdown in the 17-month war with Hamas, and there is no sign of an end. The last water desalination plant cut off from Israel’s electricity supply, forcing it to rely on backup generators and solar energy, which is also a serious shortage of clean drinking water that also plagues the war-beaten enclave.
For weeks, UN agencies have issued warnings warning that food has been used up and that famine may be on the horizon if the lockdown is not lifted to reach about 2 million Palestinians on the enclave. Last month, six bakeries were forced to close due to imposed lockdowns.
Al-Shawa said officials expect further closure of community kitchens in the coming days to produce hundreds of thousands of meals for families in Gaza.
Bakeries were forced to close, serving thousands of people, according to an internal memo circulated between aid groups on Monday.
WFP said its supply was exhausted due to the lack of humanitarian aid and there was not enough wheat flour to make bread, adding that it had distributed all available food rations.
Aid team warns of catastrophic surge in severe hunger
The UN agency said it is prioritizing its remaining stocks to provide emergency food aid and expand hot meal distribution. Aid workers have stretched out their supplies, but warned of a catastrophic surge in severe hunger and malnutrition.
Despite warnings from aid team, Israel denied the territory’s shortage, saying enough food entered the Gaza Strip during a six-week ceasefire with Hamas, “for a long time.”
Cogat, an Israeli military agency responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territory, said on Tuesday that more than 25,000 trucks entered Gaza, carrying nearly 450,000 tons of aid during the ceasefire. It said about one-third of the inputs throughout the war.
Ramadan Ramadan says households who fasted during Ramadan have struggled with sales dropping and prices soaring after Israel created nearly a month of lockdown on goods entering Gaza.
United Nations agencies and aid groups said they worked to propose and distribute assistance ahead of the 19 January ceasefire. Their estimates of Gaza’s actual aid are always lower than those of Kogat, based on how much it travels through the border.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip say it is difficult to find food when bakeries are closed due to Israel’s blockade on the territory.
The market was mostly cleared a few weeks ago, with UN agencies saying they had run out of supplies they had established during the armistice. Gaza relies heavily on international aid because the war has undermined almost all of its food production capacity.
Mohammed al-Kurd, 12, said his child went to bed without dinner.
“We told them to be patient and we will bring flour in the morning,” he told the Associated Press.
“We lied to them and ourselves.”
According to the Israeli Soles, the war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages. Hamas is still holding 59 prisoners – 24 of whom are believed to be alive – and most of the rest are released under a ceasefire agreement or other transactions.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the Israeli attack killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of strikes since the ceasefire. More people are believed to be still under rubble.
