Woman injured by gunfire from the occupation forces in the Al-Ittihad Club area on Salah al-Din Road in central Gaza Strip
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Young man Sami Nabil Al-Shawa martyred from wounds sustained yesterday in an Israeli strike that targeted Musa bin Nuseir School in Al-Daraj neighborhood in central Gaza City, bringing the number of martyrs of the raid to 2
▪We warn of the worsening bread crisis in the Gaza Strip due to a decline in flour imports, a drop in global food aid, in addition to a shortage of supplies needed to operate and maintain bakeries.
▪We affirm that the crisis threatens the continuity of bread production and the ability of residents to meet their daily food needs. ▪The sector is suffering from a flour supply deficit exceeding 25% of daily needs, estimated at about 450 tons, and this is directly reflected in the bakeries’ ability to meet demand. ▪The crisis is becoming more severe as the quantities of flour provided by the World Food Programme to bakeries have declined; they have fallen from more than 260 tons per day to about 125–135 tons per day, or about half. ▪This decline coincides with the deprivation of about 500,000 people from monthly food aid and a decrease in the number of beneficiaries from 1.6 million to 1.1 million, in addition to reducing the rations allocated to families. ▪Reducing aid shifts a larger share of responsibility for providing food onto commercial markets amid weak purchasing power among families, making access to bread more difficult and bringing back scenes of long lines in front of bakeries. ▪Bakeries in the sector need to receive about 10 trucks of flour daily on a regular basis, with each truck carrying about 33 tons. ▪It is necessary to have a reserve stock sufficient for 12 to 14 days to prevent production from declining or stopping if crossings are closed or supplies are delayed. ▪We note that the crisis goes beyond a shortage of flour to include a shortage of mineral oils and spare parts needed to operate and maintain bakery equipment, which increases the likelihood of breakdowns, raises operating costs, and threatens the continuity of production. ▪We affirm that the bread crisis in Gaza has become a compound crisis of supplies, aid, production, and maintenance, and not merely a shortage of flour. ▪We warn that the continuation of the current situation will increase the difficulty of residents’ access to one of the most important components of their basic diet. ▪We call for ensuring a sufficient and continuous flow of flour through the crossings and providing fuel, mineral oils, and spare parts. ▪A reserve stock must be built for bakeries to ensure production stability and avoid turning securing a loaf of bread into an additional daily hardship for the residents of the sector.