Gaza bakeries closed as Israeli blockade bars supplies enter besieged strip

Abdel Nasser al-Ajrami, head of the Bakery Owners Association in Gaza, made the remarks to the Palestinian Safa News Agency, which published them on Friday.

“The flour stock in the Gaza Strip is zero, and all bakeries have stopped operating,” Ajrami said.

He further noted that approximately 50% of households had exhausted their personal flour supplies.

According to the official, the closures are due to severe shortages of flour and fuel, which have been triggered by the Israeli regime’s escalating its siege on the territory.

In early March, however, the blockade began to prevent even essential aid from entering.

Before the blockade, 25 bakeries contracted with the World Food Program were operational across Gaza, he noted. However, the closure of the territory’s crossings and depletion of essential supplies have forced these facilities to cease operations entirely, the official said.

Additionally, 25 of the 70 automated bakeries in Gaza have been destroyed during the genocide, particularly in the northern regions and the southern city of Rafah, Ajrami said.

The majority of citizens had previously relied on community kitchens, known locally as takayas, for sustenance, Ajrami said. However, these too have shut down due to a lack of supplies, further deepening the crisis.

He said “there is no alternative” to reopening the crossings to allow the entry of humanitarian aid, flour, and fuel.

The World Central Kitchen, an aid organization, announced on Wednesday that it could no longer prepare meals for Palestinians in Gaza due to the depletion of food supplies and fuel necessary for cooking and baking.

Since the closure of the crossings in early March, the organization has been unable to replenish its food stocks, leading to the shutdown of over 80% of its community kitchens. This development has left hundreds of thousands of Gazans without access to daily meals.

The regime launched a genocidal war in response to a historic resistance operation, killing more than 52,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children. It simultaneously ramped up its 2007-present siege on Gaza.