Famine Threatens Gaza As Israeli War Devastates Supply Chains
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - After nearly 14 months of war, Palestinians in Gaza grapple with severe food shortages, with residents enduring long, arduous searches for flour and bread in the besieged territory.
Crowds gather daily outside the few operational bakeries in Gaza, as residents desperately seek food amidst the devastation of prolonged conflict.
“I walked about eight kilometres (five miles) to get bread,” said Hatem Kullab, a displaced Palestinian residing in a neighborhood of makeshift tents.
Since the onset of the war last year, international aid organizations and charities have repeatedly warned of critical hunger levels among the enclave’s two million residents.
A United Nations-backed assessment last month cautioned that famine looms in northern Gaza as Israeli offensives severely limit food aid deliveries. Supplies of water and medicine are also critically low.
Residents wake at dawn in hopes of securing basic sustenance, with food availability plummeting to unprecedented levels.
“There is no flour, no food, no vegetables in the markets,” said Nasser Al-Shawa, 56, who fled his bombed home to live with his family in central Gaza.
The limited food that is available has become prohibitively expensive.
Inside Gaza, over half of the buildings have been destroyed, halting production. Flour mills, warehouses, and industrial bakeries remain inoperative due to extensive damage from airstrikes.
Humanitarian aid trickles into the region, but aid groups accuse Israel of imposing significant restrictions.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) announced on Sunday that it had halted aid deliveries via the key Karem Abu Salem crossing, citing logistical challenges and looting by gangs.
For Layla Hamad, a mother of seven living in a tent in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi, the suspension of aid deliveries was devastating.
“It was like a bullet to the head,” she said, noting her family’s reliance on small flour rations from UNRWA.
“Every day, I think we will not survive, either because we will be killed by Israeli bombing or by hunger,” she added. “There is no third option.”
The Israeli military body overseeing Palestinian civil affairs, COGAT, claimed that 122 trucks of humanitarian aid, including seven tankers of fuel, entered Gaza yesterday. Of these, 50 trucks reached northern Gaza.
However, aid levels remain far below what is necessary to support the besieged population.
The announcement follows the expiration of a US-set deadline last month for Israel to increase humanitarian aid deliveries, which passed without enforcement.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the situation in a post on X, stating, “Aid is outrageously being blocked” amid “gigantic humanitarian needs in Gaza.”
He argued that the crisis stems from a lack of political will rather than logistical challenges, countering Israel’s claims.
