Despair in Gaza as a United Nations bakery

Bilal Mohamed Ramadan Abu Karsh lost his home, his job, his wife and relatives seven others during the war in Gaza. Now, with the United Nations closing 25 bakeries across the region, it also loses the only reliable source of food.

Before Wednesday, Mr. Abu Kirsh, 40, said that he would leave his tent in a home camp in northern Gaza at dawn and stand in a queue for hours in a bakery, waiting for bread for his four children.

On Wednesday, the day after the World Food Program, the United Nations Agency, the United Nations Agency, the United Nations Agency, the United Nations Agency, the United Nations Agency, the United Nations Agency He said The flour and fuel needed to maintain bakeries in Gaza have run out open.

But at least it was affordable, compared to $ 30, which he paid for a bag of pasta he recently bought to feed his family.

The lack of delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza during the past month led to a violent competition for food and raising prices.

Mr. Abu al -Kashr said that he resorted to selling his children’s jewelry and collecting garbage for sale to avoid enough money to buy a little food. “To secure a bag of bread for my children, I risked death a hundred times,” he said.

In addition to the closure of bakeries, the World Food Program said on Tuesday that it will distribute its last food parcels by Thursday, and its remaining supplies in Gaza are expected to run out of Gaza within two weeks.

This declaration prompted a desperate Ghazan to rush to United Nations warehouses this week to transfer heavy bags from the distributed flour.

The decision to close bakeries came almost a month after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Israel Stop For all humanitarian aid in Gaza, in an attempt to pressure Hamas to accept a new hostage deal with a ceasefire negotiations.

the The aid has not resumed and A two -month fragile truce Between Israel and Hamas It collapsed after two weeksWhen Israel launched new air strikes on the region.

Abdel Nasser Al -Ajer, head of the baker’s association in Jeep, said in an interview that the bakeries used up to 300 tons of flour every day, as it produces enough bread to supply about 70 percent of Gaza population, according to Abdel Nasser Al -Ajer, head of the Al -Khabazin Association in the pocket, in an interview. He said that five other bakeries in Gaza were already closed last month, when the supplies were exiled.

“Where will people get their food?” Mr. Al -Hajar, who attacked loudly, said that Gaza was heading towards a deeper humanitarian crisis. The United Nations said that the escalating war in Gaza led to an unprecedented “need” to help, Appreciation 91 percent of its population faces acute food insecurity.

He said that approximately a third of the bread made in unprofible bakeries was free to be distributed for free, and a lot of the rest was sold as a bund of beta for less than 50 cents.

“It was a way to support thousands of Ghazan who lost their jobs and a source of income during the war,” said Al -Ajer, expressing their concern that the lack of food may lead to disorders.

“This may cause chaos again throughout Gaza, where people will start fighting for a piece of bread. There may be looting again,” he said.

For weeks, the United Nations seemed to warn that humanitarian aid supplies were diminishing, and that attempts to reach aid caravans lined at the border crossings had failed. Israel accused of denying the United Nations requests routinely for wider efforts to coordinate the humanitarian movement inside the pocket, and said that the areas of non -transportation in the Israeli army and the evacuation order cover more than half of Gaza.

Cogat, the Israeli military unit responsible for coordinating the delivery operations for the Palestinian territories, He said in a social media post On Tuesday, 450,000 tons of assistance were delivered to Gaza during a two -month ceasefire, and less than 30 percent of them from the United Nations.

“In the sense that, when the United Nations says they have two weeks of aid in Gaza, there are many other relief organizations and other food actors,” said Cattat. “A lot of aid has been transferred and available on the markets,” he added. “There is enough food for an extended period of time, if enthusiasm allows civilians in it.”

In a sharp response to Israel, UN spokesman said that aid to Gaza should be allowed immediately and called on allegations that Gaza has enough “ridiculous” food.

He told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York. “If there is no flour, if there is no cooking gas, bakeries will not be able to open them.”

During the ceasefire, “We have seen humanitarian aid overwhelming Gaza,” he said. “We have seen the markets back to life. We have seen prices drop. We have seen the hostages at all, and we saw Palestinian detainees being released. We need to return to that.”

Mr. Abu al -Kashr said that his family was living in “unimaginable circumstances” and barely survived.

“This is beyond the description,” he said. “We have surrendered to death.”

FARNAZ FASSIHI The reports contributed.