DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (news agencies) — The U.N. food agency is closing all of its bakeries in the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday, as food supplies dwindle after Israel sealed the territory off from all imports nearly a month ago.
Israel, which tightened its blockade and later resumed its offensive in order to pressure Hamas into accepting changes to their ceasefire agreement, said that enough food entered Gaza during the six-week truce to sustain the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.
Markets largely emptied weeks ago, and U.N. agencies say the supplies they built up during the truce are running out. Gaza is heavily reliant on international aid because the war has destroyed almost all of its food production capability.
Mohammed al-Kurd, a father of 12, said that his children go to bed without dinner.
“We tell them to be patient and that we will bring flour in the morning,” he said. “We lie to them and to ourselves.”
For the second consecutive day, Israel’s military on Tuesday warned residents in Rafah to immediately evacuate the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city and nearby areas, a sign that it could soon launch a major ground operation there. At least 140,000 people were under orders to leave, according to the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
Meanwhile, a World Food Program memo circulated to aid groups on Monday said that it could no longer operate its remaining bakeries, which produce the pita bread on which many rely. The U.N. agency said that it was prioritizing its remaining stocks to provide emergency food aid and expand hot meal distribution. WFP spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that the WFP was closing its remaining 19 bakeries after shuttering six others last month. She said that hundreds of thousands of people relied on them.
The Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian affairs, known as COGAT, said that more than 25,000 trucks entered Gaza during the ceasefire, carrying nearly 450,000 tons of aid. It said that amount represented around a third of what has entered during the entire war.
“There is enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets the civilians have it,” it said.
U.N. agencies and aid groups say that they struggled to bring in and distribute aid before the ceasefire took hold in January. Their estimates for how much aid actually reached people in Gaza were consistently lower than COGAT’s, which were based on how much entered through border crossings.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that the bodies of at least 42 people and more than 180 wounded arrived at hospitals over the past 24 hours. At least 1,042 Palestinians have been killed in the two weeks since Israel broke the ceasefire and resumed heavy bombardments across Gaza.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Hamas is still holding 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds killed in strikes since the ceasefire ended, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed in the war are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel sealed off Gaza from all aid at the start of the war, but later relented under pressure from Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which took credit for helping to broker the ceasefire, has expressed full support for Israel’s actions, including its decision to end the truce.
Israel has demanded that Hamas release several hostages before commencing talks on ending the war, negotiations that were supposed to have begun in early February. It has also insisted that Hamas disarm and leave Gaza, conditions that weren’t part of the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas has called for implementing the agreement, in which the remaining hostages would be released in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout.
Palestinians mourned the death of Mohamed Salah Bardawil, a journalist with Hamas-affiliated Aqsa Radio, who was killed along with his wife and three children by an Israeli strike early Tuesday on their home in the southern Gaza Strip.
media footage showed the building in Khan Younis completely collapsed, with dried blood splattered on the gray rubble. Nearby, a child’s school notebook, dust-covered dolls and clothing lay half-buried in the ruins.
The journalist is the nephew of Salah Bardawil, a well-known member of Hamas’ political bureau who was killed in an Israeli strike that also killed his wife last month.
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