Outside the bakery of the Central Gaza, a recent afternoon, long lines of people waiting for bread threatened to dispel into chaos at any time.
Shouted the security guard to the crowds that were pushed toward the bakery door to wait for their turn. But no one listened.
Several steps away, scalpers dealt with bread that they received earlier that day three times more than the original price. The meal of sunset that breaks Muslims every day during the Holy Moon of Ramadan was approaching through gauze, bread, water, gas for cooking and other bases it was difficult to come – once again.
The lines were not desperate, nor did it sell this empty, since before Israel-hama ceased from the fire, on January 19. The truce allowed the help to enter the Gaza for the first time in 15 months of the conflict, during which the inhabitants received only supplies.
But no help was since March 2. That was the day Israel blocked all the goods In an effort to press Hamas to accept the extension of the extension Current phase of fire breaks And release more hostages before, instead of moving to the next phase, which would include more challenging negotiations for permanently stopping the war.
Now, interruption of help, exacerbated by panic purchases and unscrupulously pricing dealers, drives prices to levels that can be afforded. The lack of fresh vegetables and fruits and growing prices force people to retreat to canned foods like beans again.
Although preserved foods provides calories, experts say, people – and especially children – need a variety of diet that includes fresh foods to eliminate malnutrition.
In the first six weeks, there are assistant workers and traders have delivered food for Gazana, many are still weak from months of malnutrition. Medical material for bombarded hospitals, plastic pipes to restore water and fuel stocks to start pouring everything.
Data from help and United Nations groups have shown that children, pregnant women and mother breastfeeding are breastfeeding. More centers began to offer the treatment of discomfort, the United Nations announced.
They were just small steps According to the alleviation of the destruction conducted by the war, which destroyed more than half of the gauze buildings and many of its two million inhabitants were in danger of hunger.
Even with a sudden increase in help after the truce began, Gaza health officers reported that at least six newborn babies died of hypothermia in February due to lack of warm clothing, blankets, shelters or medical care, the character cited by the United Nations. Reports cannot be checked independently.
Most hospitals remain only partially operational, if at all.
Assistant Groups, United Nations and several West Governments called Israel to allow the shipments to continue, criticizing its use of humanitarian relief as a negotiating chip in negotiations, and in some cases, saying that the cross section violates international law.
Instead, Israel raises pressure.
Last Sunday, that interrupted electricity Territory supply – a move that has closed most of the operations in the water design plant and denied about 600,000 people in the central gauze of pure drinking water, according to the United Nations.
Israeli Minister of Energy has hinted in order to be the next interruption of water. Some wells are still functioning in the central gauze, and officials for help say, but supply only bottle water, which is a long -term health risk for those who drink it.
Israel has already closed all other sources of electricity he used for Gaza, a measure that followed October 7, 2023, an attack guided by a hamas on Israel that began the war. This left basic services to start on solar panels or generators if the power was available at all.
Now there is no fuel for anything, including generators, ambulances or cars.
Israel claims that about 25,000 trucks for the help that Gaza has received in recent weeks have given people sufficient food.
“There is no lack of essential products in the tape,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week. He reiterated the claims that Hamas took help by entering Gaza and that half of the group budget in Gaza came from a truck for help.
Hamas called the interruptions of help and electricity “cheap and unacceptable blackmail.”
Gaza residents say that, at least for now, they have food, although they are often not enough.
But the stocks that have collected the humanitarian groups in the first six weeks of the date are Already decliningOfficers warn. This has already forced six bakeries in Gaza to close and help groups and kitchens in the community to reduce meals in foods they share.
AID blocking command also interrupted access to gauze commercial goods imported by traders.
In the city of Deir al-Balah in the central gauze, the street market was quiet this week, because the supplies of fruits, vegetables, oil, sugar and flour were decaying. Vegetable salespeople said the price of the onion and carrots doubled, the zucchini almost doubled, and the lemons cost almost 10 times more. The eggplants were difficult to find, and the potatoes were impossible.
As a result, the sellers said, a few customers who still bought only a few vegetables, not a pound like many. Others had no means to buy anything for months.
Many Gazani lost their jobs and consumed the savings to survive the war. When the prices jumped abruptly, the others are almost completely relied on for help.
Yasmin al-Attar, 38, and her husband, driver, wandered from booth to barn on the Deir al-Balah market, looking for the cheapest prices on the last day. They have seven children, a disabled sister and two old parents who will support.
It was difficult enough to afford the minimum of ingredients for iftar, a meal that breaks daily during Ramadan, said Mrs. Al-Attar. But with a blocked fuel, it was also difficult to find a fuel for his husband’s car and for cooking.
“Just three days ago, I felt a little relief because prices seemed reasonable,” she said. Now the same money would only be enough for a much smaller amount of vegetables.
“How can that be enough for my big family?” she said.
That night, she said, they would probably make with lens soup, without vegetables. And after that? Maybe more canned food.
The owners of the barn and customers equally blamed large shortage dealers, at least in part, saying that they kept supplies to encourage prices and maximized their profit. Each vegetable available at favorable prices broke and resold many more, said Eissa Fayyad, 32, a vegetable saleswoman in Deir al-Balah.
It did not help for people to hurry to buy more than they needed as soon as they heard the Israeli decision to block help again, said Khalil Reziq, 38, a police officer in Khan Younis in Central Gaza, whose division oversees markets and shops.
Police officers of Hamas have warned companies on prices, suppliers and customers said. In some cases, said Mr. Reziq, his unit seized the goods of the supplier and sold them to the cheaper on the spot.
But such measures did little to solve the problem with supply.
In addition to the immediate challenge of delivery of food, water, medical supplies and tents to Gazani-many thousand of them, still displaced-to-help service officers said that their inability to bring in stock has returned a long-term effort to recovery.
Some have distributed vegetable seeds and animal seeds to farmers so that the gauze can start growing more of their own food, while others have worked to renovate water infrastructure and cleaning of debris and an unexploded command.
None of this was easy, officials said to help because Israel was limited or Forbidden objects Including heavy machines needed to repair infrastructure, generators and more. Israel claims that Palestinian militants could use these items for military purposes.
For many gazans, the focus is now returning to survival.
“There is no bombing right now, but I still feel like I live in the war with everything I am going through,” said Nevine Siam, 38, who sheds herself in her brother’s house with 30 other people.
She said the whole family of her sister killed during the fight. Her children ask her to make Ramadan meals like those she remembers before the war. But without income, she can get nothing but canned food in packages to help.
Where, she said, there are no celebrations and there are no solemn decorations for the holy moon.
“He feels like joy is extinguished,” she said.
Erika Solomon,, Ameer Haroud and Rania Khaled contribute to reporting.
