{"id":272316,"date":"2025-04-02T15:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T15:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/desperation-grows-in-gaza-as-u-n-shutters-bakeries\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T15:55:09","slug":"desperation-grows-in-gaza-as-u-n-shutters-bakeries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/desperation-grows-in-gaza-as-u-n-shutters-bakeries\/","title":{"rendered":"Desperation Grows in Gaza as U.N. Shutters Bakeries"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/02\/multimedia\/02gaza-aid-01-ftcj\/02gaza-aid-01-ftcj-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Desperation Grows in Gaza as U.N. Shutters Bakeries\" title=\"Desperation Grows in Gaza as U.N. Shutters Bakeries\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Bilal Mohammad Ramadan AbuKresh has lost his home, his job, his wife and seven other relatives during the war in Gaza. Now, as the United Nations closes 25 bakeries across the territory, he is also losing his only reliable source of food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before Wednesday, Mr. AbuKresh, 40, said he would leave his tent in a camp for displaced people in northern Gaza at dawn and stand in line for hours at one of the bakeries, waiting for bread for his four children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe line was unimaginable, like the Day of Judgment,\u201d Mr. AbuKresh said on Wednesday, the day after the World Food Program, a U.N. agency, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WFP\/status\/1907131156463825096\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> it had run out of the flour and fuel needed to keep the bakeries in Gaza open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But at least it was affordable, compared to the $30 he paid for a bag of pasta that he bought recently to feed his family.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The lack of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza over the past month has prompted violent competition for food and driven up prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. AbuKresh said he has resorted to selling his children\u2019s jewelry and collecting trash to sell to scrounge up enough money just to buy a bit of food. \u201cTo secure a bag of bread for my children, I risk death a hundred times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As well as the bakery closures, the World Food Program said on Tuesday that it would distribute its last food parcels by Thursday, and that its remaining supplies in Gaza were expected to run out within two weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The announcement prompted desperate Gazans to rush to U.N. warehouses this week to haul away heavy bags of flour that were being handed out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The decision to close the bakeries came almost a month after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/02\/world\/middleeast\/israel-aid-halt-gaza.html\" title=\"\">ordered a halt<\/a> to all humanitarian aid into Gaza, in an attempt to pressure Hamas into accepting a new hostage release deal as cease-fire negotiations have stalled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/15\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-aid-block.html\" title=\"\">aid has not resumed<\/a> and a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/19\/world\/middleeast\/gazans-and-israelis-dare-to-hope-as-cease-fire-takes-hold.html\" title=\"\">fragile two-month truce<\/a> between Israel and Hamas <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2025\/03\/17\/world\/israel-gaza-airstrikes\" title=\"\">collapsed two weeks later<\/a>, when Israel launched new airstrikes on the territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The bakeries used as much as 300 tons of flour each day, producing enough bread to supply about 70 percent of Gaza\u2019s population, Abdel Nasser al-Ajrami, head of the enclave\u2019s bakers\u2019 association, said in an interview. Five other bakeries in Gaza had already closed last month, he said, when they ran out of supplies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhere will people get their food from?\u201d Mr. al-Ajrami said, worrying aloud that Gaza was headed toward an even deeper humanitarian crisis. The United Nations has said the escalating war in Gaza has led to \u201cunprecedented\u201d need for aid, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ochaopt.org\/content\/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-25-march-2025\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">estimating<\/a> 91 percent of its population is facing acute food insecurity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nearly one-third of the bread made at the U.N.-funded bakeries was distributed for free, he said, and much of the rest was sold as packets of pita for as little as 50 cents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was a way to support thousands of Gazans who lost their jobs and a source of income during the war,\u201d Mr. al-Ajrami said, voicing concern that food shortages could lead to unrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis might cause chaos again across Gaza as people would start fighting for a piece of bread. There might be looting again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For weeks, the United Nations has sounded the alarm that humanitarian aid supplies were dwindling, and that attempts to gain access for aid convoys lined up at the border crossings had failed. It has accused Israel of routinely denying U.N. requests for broader efforts to coordinate humanitarian movement inside the enclave, and has said the Israeli army\u2019s no-go zones and evacuation order areas covered more than half of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">COGAT, the Israeli military unit responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Palestinian territories, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/cogatonline\/status\/1906975926308770025\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said in a social media post<\/a> on Tuesday that 450,000 tons of assistance was delivered to Gaza during the two-month cease-fire, and less than 30 percent of it was from the United Nations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMeaning, when the U.N. say they have 2 weeks worth of aid left in Gaza, there are plenty of other aid organizations and other actors with food aid,\u201d COGAT said. \u201cMuch of the aid was diverted and available on the markets,\u201d it added. \u201cThere is enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets the civilians have it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a sharp response to Israel, U.N. spokesman St\u00e9phane Dujarric said aid must be allowed into Gaza immediately and called claims that Gaza had enough food \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cW.F.P. doesn\u2019t close its bakeries for fun,\u201d he told reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York. \u201cIf there\u2019s no flour, if there\u2019s no cooking gas, the bakeries cannot open.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the cease-fire, \u201cwe saw humanitarian aid flood Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cWe saw markets come back to life. We saw prices going down. We saw hostages released, we saw Palestinian detainees released. We need to go back to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. AbuKresh said his family was living in \u201cunimaginable circumstances\u201d and barely surviving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is beyond description,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve surrendered to death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Farnaz Fassihi<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/02\/world\/middleeast\/un-aid-gaza-world-food-program.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bilal Mohammad Ramadan AbuKresh has lost his home, his job, his wife and seven other relatives during the war in Gaza. Now, as the United Nations closes 25 bakeries across the territory, he is also losing his only reliable source of food. Before Wednesday, Mr. AbuKresh, 40, said he would leave his tent in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/02\/multimedia\/02gaza-aid-01-ftcj\/02gaza-aid-01-ftcj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[92218,88983,43,32652,7850,42709,38,1209,55868,3449,7204,173072],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272318,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272316\/revisions\/272318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}