Gaza City, November 2 (RHC)-- In front of the now-damaged Sharq Bakery, blood mixes with a bag of bread that was dropped after an Israeli air raid targeted the area.  The attack on Thursday on Nasr Street in Gaza City resulted in dozens wounded and killed, Palestinian sources said.

Five bakeries in the Gaza Strip have been directly targeted by Israeli strikes, and at least eight more have suffered so much damage from attacks near them that they have been rendered out of service.

As the total siege imposed by Israel on the already blockaded territory continues, food is running out, and bread – a staple in Palestinian households – is becoming more difficult to get with each passing day.

Residents now wait in line for hours just to get a bag of pita bread for their families, with the queues beginning before dawn in some areas.

Abdelnasser al-Jarmi, the head of the Bakery Owners Association in the Gaza Strip, said bakeries have limited their operations, because of the lack of fuel, electricity and backup solar energy for generators.

There is also a massive shortage of flour.  “The UN refugee agency had 30,000 tonnes of flour that was supposed to be distributed to the refugees before the war broke out on October 7,” he said. “Bakeries took some of the flour in order to make bread and provide to the people.”

Most of the bakeries have stopped working, he added, because of the lack of fuel and for fear of being targeted.  According to Oxfam International, only about two percent of the food required to feed Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been delivered since October 7th.

Starvation is being used as a weapon of war against civilians in Gaza, the group said last week, adding that nearly everyone in the enclave is now food insecure, meaning they don’t know for sure where their next meal is coming from.

Al-Jarmi said the demand far exceeds the supply, and called on fuel and flour to be let in through the southern Rafah border crossing.  “We want a safety guarantee so that we can resume service in our bakeries,” he said.  “But now it’s an impossible situation.”