A month since Israel closed all intersections to Gaza goods, all unsupported bakeries have been closed, with most fresh vegetables empty on the market and hospitals are metering painkillers and antibiotics.
This is the longest blockade of Israel’s nearly 18 months of war against Hamas. This week, during the usual holiday Muslim holidays, many Gaza people say they are hungry.
“It was the worst Eid al-Fitr for us ever,” Um Ali Hamad, a woman displaced by Beit Lahia, told the BBC that she was looking for food in the city of Gaza. “We can’t eat or drink. We can’t enjoy it. We are exhausted.”
“We can’t find anything like tomatoes, sugar or oil anymore. They aren’t available. I almost don’t have a meal every day. Now, there’s no charity food.”
“I only have one grandson; he was born during the war. He was three months old and we couldn’t find his milk or diapers.”
Israel said the ban on goods entering Gaza on March 2 as Hamas refused to extend the first phase of the January ceasefire agreement and release more hostages.
Hamas continued to demand a transfer to the second phase of the original agreement, which would allow the remaining hostages to be released and end the war in full swing.
A two-month truce began on January 19, the return of 33 Israeli hostages – of which eight died – in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and a surge in humanitarian aid into damaged territory.
Aid agencies now call on world powers to force Israel to allow necessary goods (including food, medicine, sanitary products and fuels), pointing to national obligations under international humanitarian law.
They said they were making difficult decisions on how to manage their reduced stocks on the territory. For example, fuel is needed to enable vehicle mobility assistance, bakeries, hospital generators, water wells and water desalination plants.
NGO ActionAid calls the month-long Israeli ban, which bans entry into Gaza “shocking” and warns of a “new cycle of hunger and thirst”.
The United Nations was dismissed as “absurd” on Tuesday, an assertion by Israel that Gaza has enough food to last for a long time.
“We are at the end of the supply,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Abu Alaa Jaffar of Gaza City says closure of bakery is a “disaster” [BBC]
Kogat, an Israeli military agency that controls the traversal, said about 25,200 trucks entered Gaza during the latest ceasefire, carrying nearly 450,000 tons of aid.
“This is one third of the total trucks entering Gaza during the entire war,” Kogat wrote in an article on X.
Israeli officials accused Hamas of hoarding supplies for himself. However, Dujarric said the United Nations “maintained “very good custody” on all the aid it provided.
The shutters fell down, the oven went out, and the shelves were empty in a bakery in Gaza City – one of 25 people working with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Due to fuel and flour shortage, a sign says it has been closed until further notice”.
“Closing the bakery is a disaster because bread is our most important staple food,” said grandfather Abu Alaa Jaffar.
“Without it, people don’t know how to deal with this situation. Hunger will be worse than we’ve seen before.”
He and other passers-by told the BBC that a bag of 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of flour has grown 10 times and can now take 500 Shekels ($135; £104) on the black market.
The UN says it is “at the end of our supplies” and it is through the Gaza intersection [EPA]
For months, Israel has blocked commercial goods from entering Gaza – saying the trade has benefited from Hamas – local food production has almost completely stopped due to the war.
Although many international NGO-backed food kitchens have recently stopped working because supplies have run out, WFP hopes to continue distributing hot meals for up to two weeks.
It said it will distribute its last food package within two days. As a “last means” to all other food depletion, it has an emergency hiring operation for 415,000 people.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), the largest aid agency in Gaza, said that food will be sent for only a few days left.
“We saw a rapid exhaustion of what we had in the warehouse,” said communications director Tamara al-Rifai. “Everyone was evaluating everything because it wasn’t clear whether and when the end point would appear.”
“What was amazing for us was how fast it was if I could use the term ‘positive’, which was able to bring food and other supplies – the rate at which it evaporated in four weeks.”
Israeli military agency Cogat insists that there is “food for long enough” and accuses Hamas of hoarding supplies [Getty Images]
Israel resumed the war in Gaza on March 18. Its new air and ground operations once again made it difficult for aid workers to move and resulted in hundreds of casualties, overwhelming hospitals.
The United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) says almost half of the hospitals are now almost full.
Devices that stabilize the fracture have been used up, while the anesthesia, antibiotics and fluids are decreasing in the injured patient. The WHO warned that important supplies for pregnant mothers will be ineffective.
Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an American surgeon who recently worked in Gaza, told the BBC that he was forced to use a drill to secure a fracture in the child’s leg and that there was no working X-ray machine in two hospitals where he was.
He added that when the soap was used up, he was unable to clean the wound before surgery or even washing his hands.
Dr. Perlmutter said another massive casualty incident would mean “people will die from wounds that could have been corrected.”
So far, at least 1,066 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its new military offensive in Gaza – about a third of them children.
The WHO also warned of serious public health problems after facilities that diagnose infectious diseases were forced to close.
The international health charity Sansanières (MSF) calls on Israel to stop what is called “collective punishment for Palestinians.”
It says some patients are being treated without pain relief and those with illnesses that require regular medications, such as epilepsy or diabetes, must have their supply portions.
More than half of the hospitals in Gaza that have been under trauma cases are now almost full [Getty Images]
Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable urgently needed essential services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse living conditions faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”.
South Africa has filed an ongoing case in the United Nations Supreme Court, saying Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel rejected the claim as “unfounded.”
On October 7, 2023, the fatal attack on the south of Hamas led by Israel triggered the war in Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and causing 251 hostages to be taken to Gaza. Palestinian health authorities say more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since then.
Arab mediators are continuing to try to revive the ceasefire.
Hamas said on Saturday it accepted a new proposal from Egypt. Israel said it had objected to the United States, which has been mediating.
There is no sign of an imminent breakthrough or Israel’s end to cross Gaza.
