- After enduring weeks of hunger and despair, thousands of Gazans resorted to breaking into aid warehouses.
- Israeli airstrikes disrupted access to Shifa Hospital, and a Gaza City hospital was struck in close proximity.
Amidst the ongoing onslaught of fierce attacks on Gaza, a dire situation unfolded as thousands of people resorted to breaking into aid warehouses to acquire essential supplies, such as flour and basic hygiene products, according to a U.N. agency. This troubling development, is a sign of increasing desperation and a breakdown in public order, as tanks and infantry entered Gaza following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of a ‘second stage’ in the crisis.
Israel’s relentless bombardment from air, land, and sea intensified over the weekend, with Gaza’s Health Ministry reporting a death toll exceeding 8,000, primarily comprising women and minors.
The weekend’s bombardment, described by Gaza residents as the most severe of the conflict, resulted in widespread communication outages in the territory, temporarily isolating Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from the outside world. Communication services were partially restored to Gaza early Sunday.
The warehouse break-ins raised concerns over the deteriorating civil order after three weeks of carpet bombing and demolition and a prolonged siege on Gaza. UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, voiced its worry, with Thomas White, the Gaza director, stating that ‘People are scared, frustrated, and desperate.’ UNRWA, responsible for providing essential services to hundreds of thousands in Gaza, had transformed its schools into crowded shelters for displaced Palestinians. Israel had permitted only a limited flow of aid from Egypt, and some of it was stored in the raided warehouses.
Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the agency, disclosed that crowds breached four facilities on Saturday, although these facilities did not contain fuel, which has been in critically short supply since Israel halted all shipments.
Israel continues to bomb bakeries
The UN refugee agency reports that 10 out of the 50 bakeries it supports have been struck, and the dwindling fuel supply is hampering the transportation of flour to the remaining ones.
Bread is desperately sought after, as it has become the primary sustenance for numerous individuals in the shelters. These shelters now exceed their original capacity, housing over 600,000 people, tripling the intended occupancy.
The World Food Programme (WFP) reported that out of the bakeries it had engaged under contract for flour supply and bread production, only two had sufficient fuel to maintain their ovens. The operational bakeries were operating at six times their usual capacity. A spokesperson noted that while the WFP had been providing bread to an average of 200,000 individuals daily, this number decreased to 150,000 on Wednesday.
“Tens of thousands of people rely on small bakeries to find a loaf of bread to bring back to their families. People risk their lives and queue for hours, but they often go home empty-handed,” the WFP spokesperson said.
Twenty percent of the bakeries assisted by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza have already been targeted in bombings. Dire warnings of “catastrophic” food shortages have arisen as a result of the fuel shortage.
Pictured: New al Maghazi bakery
Meanwhile, residents near Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, reported that Israeli airstrikes had hit near the hospital complex and disrupted many access routes. Tens of thousands of civilians sought shelter in Shifa, which was also accommodating numerous wounded patients.
Mahmoud al-Sawah, a resident sheltering in the hospital, described the increasing difficulty of reaching the facility, suggesting that it appeared as though authorities were attempting to isolate the area. Another Gaza City resident, Abdallah Sayed, characterised the recent Israeli bombings in the past two days as ‘the most violent and intense’ since the recent attacks began.
