Jerusalem, 7 January 2009 - WFP on Tuesday delivered wheat flour to 30 Gaza bakeries, enabling them to bake bread for civilians who are finding it increasingly difficult to access food.
As part of efforts to stave off a food emergency in Gaza, WFP has been delivering much-needed flour to bakeries. Owing to a general shortage caused by recent hostilities, only 12 out of 47 bakeries were functioning earlier this week.
WFP-contracted bakeries can now produce 5,000 3-kg bread parcels per day. However, it is difficult to get the bread from the bakeries to the people who need it most.
As well as delivering food to bakeries in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis and Rafah, WFP has also distributed bread to a further 15,000 people.
Access to warehouses
But wider distribution of WFP food assistance has been badly hampered by a lack of access to warehouses, due to security constraints. Movements by the civilian population within Gaza are also severely restricted, with many people unable or too frightened to leave their homes.
WFP has succeeded in reaching more than 50,000 people from its regular caseload of 265,000 non-refugee Palestinians in Gaza since the latest hostilities erupted on 27 December. The agency welcomed the Israeli announcement on Wednesday of a three-hour daily ceasefire from 7 January, as a first step towards creating the necessary "breathing space" to resume full-scale distributions.
WFP has food stocks in Gaza, but to ensure food assistance over the coming months, it is vital that all crossing points into Gaza are reopened, WFP said, stressing the importance of the Karni crossing in the northeast of the Strip.
150 trucks waiting
Some 150 trucks with WFP food (4,500 tons) have been waiting for several days to deliver into Gaza at the southern Kerem Shalom crossing point, which is currently the only available crossing point from Israel into Gaza.
WFP is urging donors to respond generously to the additional needs created by this latest crisis in Gaza, and to provide funding for our programme, which is facing a shortfall of US$73 million for 2009. These needs are expected to increase, once it is possible to gain access and conduct further assessments.