All bakeries in Gaza have been forced to close as flour and other food supplies are running out due to the Israeli blockade on all goods entering Gaza, which was imposed on March 2.
According to The Associated Press, the UN’s World Food Program circulated a memo to aid groups on Monday saying it could no longer operate the 19 bakeries it was operating due to a lack of supplies. Six other bakeries run by the WFP had previously closed.
Abdel Nasser al-Ajrami, the head of Gaza’s bakery owners’ association, announced on Tuesday that all bakeries would be shutting down. “Bakeries will no longer operate until the [Israeli] occupation opens the crossings and allows the necessary supplies to enter,” he said, according to Middle East Eye.
Ahmed Dremly, a journalist based in north Gaza, told MEE that after the bakeries closed, displaced Palestinians went to markets looking for flour only to find that a single bag cost 400 shekels ($115), up from a pre-war price of 25 shekels. When the short-lived ceasefire was in effect, bags of flour could be found for 35 shekels.
“People are now in a state of confusion, they have forgotten the war, displacement, migration and bombing,” Dremly said. “Their main thoughts have become flour.”
Heavy Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza on Tuesday as Palestinians were looking for flour. Since Israel restarted its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on March 18, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The US has strongly backed Israel’s bombing campaign and its blockade on all goods entering Gaza, which amounts to the collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, a war crime under international law.
