One of the last grain warehouses in the Gaza Strip has been severely damaged by Israeli bombardment and bread, the staple food for the enclave’s residents, is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity.

On the 42nd day of the war between Hamas and Israel, which broke out on October 7 after the Palestinian movement’s bloody attack, the flour mill in Khan Yunis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, ceased operations.

With reserves of 3,000 tons of grain, it is one of the largest in the enclave. Today its warehouse is partially destroyed, while the flour mill does not have enough fuel to operate.

“If the Red Cross does not receive Israeli approval to proceed with the necessary repairs, we will be forced to suspend our activity,” said Abdelnasser al-Azami, president of the bakers’ union.

The top floor of the warehouse was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight Wednesday into Thursday, and AFP was unable to clarify what had become of the grain stored there.

The previous day, the al-Salam de Deir al-Balah flour mill in the center of the Gaza Strip was attacked and destroyed, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).

Of the five flour mills in the Gaza Strip, at least two have been hit by Israeli shelling.

Market tension

Now, the UN warns, the risk of starvation is “imminent” for Gaza’s 2.4 million residents, as Israel has imposed a “total siege” on the enclave.

Supplies of water, electricity, food and medicine are running low as just 1,139 aid trucks have entered Gaza, of which 447 were carrying food, according to the UN.

This covers just “7% of residents’ minimum daily calorie needs,” the World Food Program (WFP) estimated.

The few large sacks of flour left are now selling for up to €180 each.

The UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) still has about 2,000 tons of grain, which corresponds to about 370 tons of flour, which means that there are five or six days until stocks run out.

UNRWA explained to AFP that it is working with more than 80 bakeries in the Gaza Strip. Now all that exist in the northern part of the enclave have been shut down and only 63 are still operating in the center and south, often not fully due to electricity and gas shortages.

The largest bakery in Gaza City stopped working on Tuesday, when its two solar panels were damaged by Israeli bombing. The hungry inhabitants then rushed to the flour stocks.

Harmful to health

Since the beginning of the war the queues in front of many bakeries have grown continuously, with residents waiting since dawn without being sure they will find enough bread to feed their entire family.

Besides, Ocha added, during the five hours, on average, they are forced to wait “they are exposed to airstrikes”.

The American NGO Mercy Cry reported that its groups in Gaza were often forced to pay as much as $30 for five nuts.

In all food stores the shelves are empty and often there are announcements “bread end” or “yeast end”.

UNRWA and WFP are distributing bread produced by the bakeries they work with directly to residents in their 154 shelters where 813,000 displaced people live. But UNRWA warns that most of the trucks carrying the bread are running out of fuel.

Gazans have started making their own bread. In the southern part of the enclave, where a large part of the 1.65 million displaced people are piled up, the fires burning in front of houses and tents bear witness to this.

But Ocha is worried: flour, water and salt have run out in much of the Gaza Strip. And residents are forced to “skip or curtail their meals” or “resort to unhealthy cooking methods.”

Some now only eat “onions and raw eggplants,” reports Ocha.