Since Saturday February 28 and the start of Israeli-American bombings on Iran, the Palestinian enclave has been in total isolation. Humanitarian organizations tasked with feeding the population warn that their stocks are already dangerously depleted. José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, spoke out on social networks: his organization – which provides a million hot meals every day – will be completely out of stock before the end of the week.
Food security experts are categorical, there is only a week of fresh produce left in the enclave. Community bakeries, pillars of survival for the most vulnerable, only have flour for around ten more days. As for emergency relief packages, they will not cover more than two weeks.
With Israel controlling 60% of a territory largely destroyed by bombing, nothing can be produced there without the agreement of the Jewish state. The same goes for any external supply. The memory of the great famine of the summer of 2025, caused by similar restrictions, haunts minds and causes panic in local markets, which risks liquidating stocks even more quickly.
According to the Guardian, prices have soared since the start of the war against Iran. The price of a 25 kg bag of flour tripled in forty-eight hours, going from 30 to almost 100 shekels (from €8.34 to €27.82). Essential products like cooking oil, sugar or baby diapers have already doubled.
International law, although clear, does not seem to be of much concern to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, recalls that as the occupying power, Israel has the legal responsibility and obligation to guarantee the supply of food and medicine for civilians under its control.
Insufficient infrastructure
The coordinator of government activities in the territories (the Israeli military body overseeing supply flows) justified the border closures on the grounds of national security. A partial reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing took place on Tuesday March 3, but there remains complete uncertainty as to the volume of aid that will actually be authorized to transit in the days to come.
The crisis is accentuated by the total absence of stocks inside Gaza. Bahaa Al-Amawi, a member of the North Gaza Chamber of Commerce, told the Guardian that the ongoing instability in the region and the destruction of warehouses have prevented any creation of a security reserve since the last ceasefire.
For Alaa Abu Rakba, who survives with his wife and four children in a makeshift tent, the situation is unbearable. Having learned from past famines, he spent his last funds on sugar and oil, to the detriment of other vital needs.
While the world’s eyes are on the conflict between Tel Aviv and Tehran, two million people are waiting for aid trucks to once again cross the barbed wire of Kerem Shalom. Without rapid international intervention to protect humanitarian aid, the human toll could quickly increase.
