Footage shows hundreds of Gazans thronging bakery distributing bread amid slightly eased Israeli blockade

Footage published in Arabic media shows hundreds of Palestinians crowding around a bakery in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp as bread is being distributed for the first time in weeks after Israel began easing an aid blockade over the Strip after 78 days.

The scenes point to the limited food security throughout the Strip, where US President Donald Trump has said people have been starving for weeks amid the Israeli blockade, which has been aimed at squeezing Hamas to release hostages but has come at a steep cost to the civilian population. Yesterday, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority health minister said that 29 children and elderly people have died from starvation-related deaths in Gaza in recent days and that many thousands more are at risk. Israeli authorities claim that there is not currently a food shortage in Gaza.

Israel has allowed in several hundred trucks of aid this week, and the assistance included flour for bakeries that have allowed some of them to begin operating again.

The World Food Program, which operates some of those bakeries, confirmed earlier this week that some of their sites in central and southern Gaza have reopened.