Bakeries in the Gaza Strip shuttered Tuesday after running out of flour and diesel to operate, as a month-long Israeli blockade on food and aid entering the territory remains in place.
Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami, head of the Bakery Owners Association in the Gaza Strip, said the closure of remaining 19 bakeries — which relied on support from the World Food Program (WFP) — meant there were no more operating bakeries in the territory.
“We call on the world to pressure the [Israeli] occupation to open the crossings to prevent the famine from worsening in the Strip,” Al-Ajrami said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, general manager of the Palestinian NGO network in Gaza, said the bakeries were forced to close Tuesday citing a lack of flour and diesel.
Al-Shawa said the territory has entered the “worst stage” of the war, as the suspension on aid and goods entering continues to worsen conditions for its population that has again been displaced and under Israeli bombardment.
“Gaza is entering the most critical stage of its humanitarian catastrophe,” Al-Shawa told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Tuesday.
“We are warning that this will affect the lives of Gazans — mainly children, women and elders.”
Aid has not entered Gaza for four weeks
Since March 2, Israel has not allowed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, saying it is intended to pressure Palestinian militant group Hamas to release its remaining hostages — a tactic that rights groups say amounts to a war crime.
The four-week-long closure has effectively shut off all sources of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies from reaching civilians in Gaza — the longest total blockade yet of the 17-month war with Hamas, with no sign of it ending. A dire shortage of clean drinking water is also plaguing the war-torn enclave after the last water desalination plant was cut off from Israel’s electricity supply, forcing it to rely on back-up generators and solar power.
For weeks, UN agencies have sounded the alarm, warning that food is running out and a potential famine is looming if the blockade is not lifted to reach roughly two million Palestinians across the enclave. Last month, six bakeries were forced to close due to the imposed blockade.
Officials are expecting further closures of community kitchens — which produce hundreds of thousands of meals to families in Gaza — in the next several days, Al-Shawa said.
The bakeries, which were forced to close, were serving hundreds of thousands of people, according to an internal memo circulated among aid groups on Monday.
The WFP said that due to the lack of humanitarian aid, its supplies are running out and it doesn’t have enough wheat flour needed to make bread, adding that it’s distributed all available food rations.
Aid groups warn of catastrophic surge in severe hunger
The UN agency said that it was prioritizing its remaining stocks to provide emergency food aid and expand hot meal distribution. Aid workers have stretched supplies, but warned of a catastrophic surge in severe hunger and malnutrition.
Despite aid group warnings, Israel denies that there is a shortage in the territory, saying enough food entered the Gaza Strip during its six-week ceasefire with Hamas for “a long period of time.”
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that more than 25,000 trucks entered Gaza during the ceasefire, carrying nearly 450,000 tons of aid. It said that amount represented around a third of what has entered during the entire war.
Nearly one month after Israel imposed a complete blockade on goods entering Gaza, families fasting for the holy month of Ramadan say finding food has been a struggle amid dwindling supplies and soaring prices.
UN agencies and aid groups say that they struggled to bring in and distribute aid before the ceasefire took hold on Jan. 19. Their estimates for how much aid actually reached people in Gaza were consistently lower than COGAT’s, which were based on how much entered through border crossings.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip say it’s even harder to find food as bakeries close due to a tightened Israeli blockade of the territory.
Markets largely emptied weeks ago, and UN agencies say the supplies they built up during the truce are running out. Gaza is heavily reliant on international aid, because the war has destroyed almost all of its food production capability.
Mohammed al-Kurd, a father of 12, said his children go to bed without dinner.
“We tell them to be patient and that we will bring flour in the morning,” he told The Associated Press.
“We lie to them and to ourselves.”
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas is still holding 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds killed in strikes since the ceasefire ended, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Thousands more are believed to still be under rubble.
