
Bakeries close across Gaza as World Food Programme warns food supplies are set to run out in two weeks
All bakeries in Gaza have closed due to a severe lack of fuel and flour caused by Israel's near month-long blockade of humanitarian aid, according to local authorities.
'The occupation has forced all bakeries to shut down entirely, exacerbating the famine crisis that threatens the lives of innocent civilians, particularly children, patients, and the elderly,' the Hamas-controlled Government Media Office in Gaza said Tuesday.
The closures are likely to accelerate the spread of famine in the strip, the head of the local Bakery Owners' Association, Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami told the Palestinian Press Agency Safa.
The United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP) said all 25 of its bakeries in the enclave had shut, citing the lack of flour and fuel.
'Hot meals are continuing, but supplies will last two weeks. WFP will distribute its last food parcels in the next two days,' said Abeer Etefa, the WFP's communications officer for Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe.
The closures are already having a dire impact on Palestinians, with one man telling CNN his children are nauseated and exhausted from the lack of food.
'I went to every bakery. Every time we ask, they say there's no flour due to the closure of the crossings. The Israelis control the crossings. We don't know where to go,' Abdul Rahman Fattayeh said.
Ibrahim al-Kurd, a local Palestinian, told CNN the situation was 'extremely difficult, beyond explanation.'
'I have 40 family members, and I've been searching for bread for them since 8 a.m., going around all the bakeries in Deir al-Balah. None are operating,' al-Kurd said. 'There's no flour, no firewood, nothing. Not even water. It's dire,' he added.
The Israeli government shut down the supply of food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza in early March, in a bid to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages and impose new conditions on the extension of the ceasefire.
No aid has entered the enclave for more than three weeks, with the head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) saying that this is the longest Gaza has been without any supplies since the war began.
'During the ceasefire, 500–600 trucks arrived daily. Now, nothing,' Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, said last week.
Describing the latest blockade as the worst humanitarian crisis since the war began, Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, warned the closure of bakeries would impact 'hundreds of thousands of people' who rely on them for food.
'The coming days will be very critical on the lives and the health of the Palestinians in Gaza, mainly children, women, and elders,' Al-Shawa said Tuesday, urging the international community to pressure Israel into reopening the crossings.
CNN has reached out to COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for enabling aid to enter Gaza, for a response to the claims.
CNN's Eyad Kourdi contributed reporting.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Air India flight crashes with 242 on board
A passenger plane has crashed at an airport in India's western city of Ahmedabad, with 242 people on board. The number of casualties was not immediately clear. Air India said that one of its flights bound for London was involved in an 'incident.' CNN's Will Ripley reports.


CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Air India flight crashes with 242 on board
A passenger plane has crashed at an airport in India's western city of Ahmedabad, with 242 people on board. The number of casualties was not immediately clear. Air India said that one of its flights bound for London was involved in an 'incident.' CNN's Will Ripley reports.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Video does not show China recently airdropping aid to Gaza
What was claimed: A video shows China dropping aid on 17 May 2025. Our verdict: This isn't wholly accurate. While the video does depict an aid drop in Gaza, it has been circulating online since at least September 2024. And there's no evidence that China has recently delivered aid to Gaza by air. A video which has been shared over 8,000 times with claims it depicts an air aid drop by China is misleading. The clip, which is circulating on Facebook, was shared on 17 May with the caption: 'This is not Saudi Arabia's 600 Billion This is not Qatar's 1.2 Trillion This is not UAE's 1.4 Trillion This is china dropping air aids today [sic].' In the video, large parachutes can be seen falling from the sky attached to crates, while a large number of people on the ground run to retrieve them. Although neither the caption nor the overlaid text specifies where aid is being dropped, many accounts in the comments reference Gaza or Palestinians. The parachutes seem to be identical to those seen in other videos of humanitarian aid being airdropped into Gaza. The same video was also shared on X (formerly Twitter) on 17 May with claims it showed China dropping food and medical supplies into Gaza. However, this footage does not show China delivering aid through air drops last month. The same clip has been circulating online since at least September 2024, when it was shared on TikTok with a description stating that it showed the 'situation in northern Gaza in obtaining aid'. Full Fact has not been able to verify when or where exactly the video was taken. As we have previously written, we have found no credible reports that China has been delivering aid by air during the 11-week Israeli blockade, which was recently eased to allow a limited amount of food and aid into Gaza. Aid distribution centres in Gaza run by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial US and Israel-backed aid network, were closed on 4 June, following a number of shootings on the roads to the sites, and only two centres were reportedly operating on Thursday, 5 June. Air aid drops from other countries, including the US, UK, Jordan, France, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, did take place between March and May 2024, but we've not found any reports of these having involved China. China announced in February earlier this year—before the blockade began on 2 March—that it would deliver 60,000 food parcels through Jordan, which according to Chinese media reports, was to be transported over land borders and not by air. We have previously fact checked other videos of aid being air dropped via similar parachutes as well as aeroplanes in flight which have been shared with misleading claims that China was responsible. And similar claims about other images or videos supposedly showing China airdropping aid have been debunked by other fact checkers. Before sharing content like this that you see gaining traction on social media, first consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and reliable source and really depicts what it is claimed to show. Our guide to spotting misleading videos can help you do this. This week (1-7 June) Full Fact is the subject of the BBC Radio 4 Appeal. Listen today to broadcaster and journalist Martha Kearney tell Charlotte's story—all donations mean Full Fact can do more to help people like Charlotte.