Gaza bakeries shut down due to severe fuel, flour shortages amid siege
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The Gaza Strip normally uses 450 tons of flour each day, with bakeries providing around 50% of the population's needs.
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A Palestinian girl struggles as she and others try to get donated food at a distribution center in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on March 16, 2025. (AP)
Every bakery in the Gaza Strip has suspended operations indefinitely due to a serious lack of flour and fuel, which resulted from a month-long Israeli siege that prevented these basic supplies from entering the Strip.
According to Abdel Nasser al-Ajrami, the chairman of the Gaza Bakery Association, the closing of bakeries in Gaza means the halt of all bakeries participating in the World Food Programme (WFP).
Al-Ajrami described the present scenario as an ongoing hunger war, with bakeries in the southern Gaza Strip closing their doors yesterday and those in central and northern Gaza anticipated to follow suit starting today.
According to al-Ajrami, the bakery closures are the direct result of "Israel's" ongoing blockade of products, which has resulted in significant shortages of not just flour and fuel but also yeast. He went on to say that the scenario is increasing Gaza's dismal living circumstances, which have already been hampered by continued Israeli aggression, with inhabitants now facing a lack of cooking gas.
The Gaza Strip normally uses 450 tons of flour each day, with bakeries providing around 50% of the population's needs. The area has 140 operational bakeries, 70 of which are automated. Israeli bombings have damaged a considerable number of these bakeries, mainly in northern Gaza, causing damages estimated in the millions of dollars.
Gaza Government Media Office warns of famine crisis
"Israel" has escalated its war crimes in Gaza by imposing a complete blockade on flour, humanitarian aid, and fuel, leading to the shutdown of all bakeries for over a month and causing widespread starvation.
The Government Media Office condemned this as "part of Israel's ongoing genocide," warning that the worsening famine crisis is putting 2.4 million Palestinians, especially children, the sick, and the elderly, at extreme risk.
The office stressed that this blockade violates international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians.
The Government Media Office also held the US administration accountable for enabling this humanitarian crisis and called on the international community, the United Nations, and human rights organizations to take swift action to stop "Israel's" use of food and fuel as tools of collective punishment.
“This suffocating siege will not break the will of the Palestinian people or force them to concede their legitimate rights. Instead, it will only strengthen their resilience in the face of oppression and genocide,” the statement emphasized.
