After Israel sealed off all imports from entering Gaza a month ago, the United Nations food agency announced on Tuesday that it would be closing all of its bakeries in the Gaza Strip due to insufficient resources to continue operating them.
Israel resumed its offensive on the Gaza Strip, asserting that six weeks of ceasefire had provided ample time for materials and food to enter the besieged area, enough to sustain the 2 million Palestinians living there for an extended period.
According to the Associated Press, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called Israel's assertion "ridiculous" and raised the alarm that the food shortage had reached a critical phase. Additionally, she stated that the lack of flour and cooking oil was the main reason forcing the bakeries to close, furthermore the Israeli department COGAT responsible for Palestinian affairs and associated with the Israeli Army estimated around 25,000 trucks has entered the strip during the ceasefire carrying 450,000 tons of aid.
There is enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets the civilians have it.
COGAT
United Nations agencies and humanitarian organizations have reported significant challenges in their efforts to deliver and distribute aid to the Gaza Strip prior to the ceasefire that took effect in January. According to these groups, their assessments of the aid that actually reached the people in Gaza were consistently much lower than the figures provided by COGAT, which were based on the amount of aid that successfully passed through the border crossings.