Shortage of Bread in Gaza

Gaza food shortage"

People in Gaza are left with noting
Gaza Resident: We have no gas, no water, no electricity, not even bread...

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Continued border closures force UN to suspend food aid to 750,000 Gazans
Source: United Nations News Service Via ReliefWeb
Date: 13 Nov 2008

The United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees was forced to suspend food distributions to half of Gaza's 1.5 million residents today since continued border closures have prevented the delivery of vital supplies for over a week.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said it is unprecedented for its warehouses to be empty of food.

"It's been a week since we've been able to get any food supplies into Gaza, which has caused us to fall into this particular crisis," John Ging, the head of UNRWA in Gaza, told UN Radio.

"We have quite simply run out because again we haven't been allowed for many months to build up a reserve and that's why we are in such a precarious situation. This evening, our stores are now empty and we won't be able to resume our food distribution until such time as we get a re-supply together," he added.

"It's very harrowing for the population here, not just physically but psychologically as well."

All Gaza commercial crossings remained closed today for the eighth day in row, with no humanitarian or commercial goods being allowed in.

UNRWA said it is not clear when the crossings will reopen or when it will be able to resume its distributions. It stressed that "having hundreds of thousands of hungry and desperate people in Gaza is not in the interests of anyone who believes in peace."

Meanwhile, the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) reports that fuel was prevented from entering Gaza today, with the Israeli Government citing as its reason the firing of mortars and rockets into Israel.

As a result, Gaza's power plant will shut down today and probably remain closed until Sunday. Supplies of diesel and petrol are also running low, according to UNSCO.



More Related News:
Gaza Power Plants totally off
Source IMEMC
Friday November 14, 2008 1:40

The Popular Committee Against the Siege, headed by Legislator Jamal El Khodary, stated that all power generators at the Gaza Power Plant stopped operating due to the lack of industrial fuel as the Israeli occupation barred fuel supplies from entering Gaza ten days ago.

On Thursday evening, at 6:30, the Committee sounded sirens in different parts of the Gaza Strip to announce that the power plant is not functioning anymore.

Al Khodary stated in a press conference in Gaza that since the Power Plant is not functioning, hospitals and medical centers would not be able to function. Other basic services, including drinking water wells, will also be out of order.

The power shortage would also disrupt critical water and sanitation services, this endangering the health and life of the residents.

Several bakeries had to shut down and the rest of the bakeries will shut down soon, he added.

The independent legislator added that the Israeli occupation sealed all industrial crossings ten days ago and ignored all calls to keep them opened as their continued closure will cause further humanitarian disasters in the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip.

He called on the international community and the Arab world to intervene in order to stop the illegal Israeli measures that affect the lives of 1.5 million residents.

Responding to a call from the Committee, hundreds of residents took off to the street in the Gaza Strip in protest to the illegal Israeli measures and expressed their anger and rejection to the cutting of fuel supplies.

The residents chanted for freedom and held banners rejecting the siege and demanding an end to it.



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