All bakeries forced to close in Gaza due to lack of flour and fuel
alestinians queue outside a bakery during Eid al-Fitr, which ends Ramadan, in Gaza City on 30 March 2025
Lubna Masarwa reports in Middle East Eye on 1 April 2025:
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 usually 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.”