Palestinian officials have warned that Israel’s suspension of goods and aid into Gaza has led to bakery closures, soaring food prices and the risk of a clean water crisis as electricity cuts further strain the besieged enclave.
The suspension, which Israel said was aimed at pressuring Palestinian resistance group Hamas in cease-fire talks, applies to food, medicine and fuel imports.
The U.N. Palestinian refugees agency UNRWA said the decision to halt humanitarian aid threatens the lives of civilians exhausted by 17 months of "brutal" war. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people were dependent on aid, it said.
Hamas described the measure as "collective punishment" and insisted it will not be pushed into making concessions.
Abdel-Nasser al-Ajrami, head of the Gaza bakers' union, told Reuters that six out of the 22 bakeries still able to operate in the enclave had already shut after they ran out of cooking gas.
"The remaining bakeries may close down in a week or so should they run out of diesel or flour, unless the crossing is reopened to allow the goods to flow," he said.
The bakeries were already unable to meet the needs of the people, he said.
Israel last week blocked the entry of goods into the territory in a standoff over a truce that has halted fighting for the past seven weeks. The move has led to a hike in the prices of essential foods as well as of fuel, forcing many to ration their meals.
Displaced from her destroyed house and living in a tent in Khan Younis, 40-year-old Ghada al-Rakab said she is struggling to secure basic needs. The mother of six bakes some goods for her family and neighbours, sometimes renting out a clay makeshift oven.
"What kind of life are we living? No electricity, no water, no life, we don't even live a proper life. What else is left there in life? May God take us and give us rest," al-Rakab said.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 48,500 Palestinians since October 2023, according to Gaza health officials, left most of its people destitute and razed much of the territory to the ground.
The war was triggered by a Hamas incursion of southern Israel that caused around 1,200 deaths and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
In Israel's latest punitive measure, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said Sunday he had instructed the Israel Electric Corporation to cut off power to Gaza in what he described as a means of pressure on Hamas to free hostages.
Israel already cut power supply to Gaza at the war's start but this move would affect a wastewater treatment plant currently supplied with power, according to the Israeli electricity company.
The Palestinian Water Authority said the decision suspended operations at a water desalination plant that produced 18,000 cubic meters (18 million liters) of water per day for the population in central and southern areas of Gaza Strip.
Mohammad Thabet, the spokesperson of the Gaza power distribution plant, told Reuters the decision will deprive people in those areas of clean and healthy water.
"The decision is catastrophic, municipalities now will be obliged to let sewage water stream into the sea, which may result in environmental and health risks that go beyond the boundaries of Gaza," Thabet said.
All the aid supplies being distributed by the Palestine Red Crescent are dwindling and it is having to ration what remains, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies said.
"If it is possible to find the basics like eggs and chicken, the prices have rocketed and are out of reach for the majority of people in Gaza," IFRC spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa said.
It is also concerned that a lack of medical supplies and medicines may impact the treatment of patients.
