A fifth of bakeries supported by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza have been bombed so far, as warnings have been issued of “catastrophic” food shortages due to a lack of fuel.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said 10 of the 50 bakeries it supplies with flour, helping to lower the soaring cost of bread, have been hit in airstrikes and fuel is running out for vehicles to transport flour to those that remain.
Bread has been desperately sought after, with long queues at bakeries, and has become the main food for many people in the shelters, which are now house more than 600,000 people – triple their intended capacity.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said only two bakeries it had contracted – WFP supplies flour to contracted bakeries, which produce bread for distribution – had enough fuel to keep their ovens going and those that were operating were producing six times their capacity. A spokesperson said that while the WFP had been supplying an average of 200,000 people a day with bread, that dropped to 150,000 on Wednesday.
“Tens of thousands of people rely on small bakeries to find a loaf of bread to bring back to their families. People risk their lives and queue for hours, but they often go home empty-handed,” the WFP spokesperson said.
“Conditions in Gaza are desperate. Food and water are running out, shelters for displaced people are massively overcrowded and, without fuel, there is no electricity. Health services are collapsing.”
The WFP also said about 10% of shops it worked with had run out of food and others only have five days of goods left, unable to restock because of damaged roads and the lack of fuel.
The Hamas-run government on Thursday gave locations of 10 bakeries across Gaza that have been damaged by airstrikes, including in the Jabaliya, al-Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps.
A resident at Al-Maghazi, Asad al-Bairoti, told the Associated Press: “We in the camp were surprised by the Israeli occupation warplanes bombing the … bakery, which is the only [one] in the al-Maghazi camp and is frequented by thousands of citizens on a daily basis.”
The WFP chief, Cindy McCain, said the agency was trying to find more bakeries to work with but called for fuel deliveries into Gaza to enable them to operate.
“Our teams are working to find more, but those we talk to say they’ve run out of fuel so cannot bake any more. Our bread is the only food for many people in shelters. Without fuel, this lifeline will be cut,” said McCain.
The WFP said nine trucks have entered Gaza since Egypt’s Rafah border crossing opened last Saturday but 141 more were waiting. It said 40 trucks a day are needed to cross to meet basic needs.