All bakeries forced to close in Gaza due to lack of flour and fuel

All bakeries in Gaza have been forced to close down due to Israel’s blockade on food and essentials. 

Abdel Nasser al-Ajrami, the head of Gaza’s bakery owners’ association, announced on Tuesday that bakeries had shut as a result of lack of fuel and flour. 

“The World Food Programme [WFP] informed us today that flour had run out in its warehouses,” Ajrami said. 

“Bakeries will no longer operate until the [Israeli] occupation opens the crossings and allows the necessary supplies to enter.”

The WFP supports the running of 18 bakeries in the enclave. Their closures will worsen a starvation and malnutrition crisis that has devastated Gaza’s two million residents. 

“The news came as a shock to the entire population,” Ahmed Dremly, a freelance journalist based in northern Gaza, told Middle East Eye. 

He explained that bread was the main carbohydrate used by Palestinians in the enclave to battle their hunger. 

Palestinians ususally eat it with canned foods, as chicken, meat and most vegetables are unavailable due to Israel’s closure of all access points into Gaza. 

For four weeks, Israeli forces have closed off the supply of all sources of food, fuel, medicine and essentials into the Palestinian enclave. It’s the longest continuous such blockade since war began 18 months ago. 

“All entry points into Gaza are closed. At the border, food is rotting. Medicine is expiring. Vital medical equipment is stuck,” said Tom Fletcher, the United Nations' humanitarian chief.

“If the basic principles of humanitarian law still count, the international community must act to uphold them.”

The four weeks coincided with the holy month of Ramadan and the festival of Eid al-Fitr. 

Eid marks the end of Ramadan and is normally a joyous occasion for Gaza’s residents, with families meeting to eat and enjoy each other’s company. 

But this year - as with the last - the festival was dominated by displacement, hunger and Israeli forces' resumption of relentless bombardment. 

'People's main thoughts are flour'

Bakeries not only provided bread, but also gas to cook with - an extremely rare resource in the besieged territory. 

Most people have resorted to burning wood to make food at home, but even that has become scarce. Wood is being sold on the black market at high prices. 

“People can't afford to buy wood or even buy baking ingredients like oil and yeast,” said Dremly. “Bakeries were necessary to satisfy hunger and save time, effort and resources.”

As bakeries closed, markets filled with displaced people running around looking for flour. But little to none was available. 

For those who did find flour, each sack was being sold at a staggering 400 shekels ($115), said Dremly, up from 25 shekels pre-war and 35 shekels when the short-lived ceasefire began in January. 

'People can't afford to buy wood or even buy baking ingredients like oil and yeast'

- Ahmed Dremly, journalist

“People are now in a state of confusion, they have forgotten the war, displacement, migration and bombing,” the journalist described. “Their main thoughts have become flour.” 

In northern Gaza in particular, residents had suffered from starvation for over eight months, after Israel laid siege to several towns and cities. 

Aid organisations have widely accused Israeli forces of using starvation as a weapon of war. 

Residents in Gaza's north told MEE that when the ceasefire was announced on 19 January, they thought their days of hunger and deteriorating health were behind them. 

But now no food supplies have entered the entire enclave since early March, when the Israeli attacks resumed.

“At the beginning of the war, people were still healthy and had the ability and energy to endure,” said Dremly. “Now they cannot endure again.”

With no bread available, Palestinians are looking for alternative carbohydrates like rice and pasta. 

MEE found that some people were borrowing money, or selling household goods, to buy rice. 

Even if they do manage to buy items, many Palestinians live in overcrowded tents, and some even sleep on the streets. Few live in the right conditions to make dough or cook food. 

The WFP said last week that its overall food supplies were set to run out in the coming days. 

It said that as a “last resort”, once all other food had run out, it had an emergency stock of fortified biscuits for 415,000 people. 

“People here are not optimistic,” said Dremly. “They no longer care whether the war continues or ends, because all they care about is eating.”