ActionAid International said that people in the Gaza Strip are facing great difficulty in surviving, as many of them are living on less than one loaf of bread per day, due to the severe food shortage that has forced bakeries and community kitchens (takayas) to close.

Many families rely on community kitchens as their only hope for one meal a day, but some of these kitchens have now been forced to close, leaving people without any source to turn to in light of the limited aid to Gaza as a result of the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities and the exorbitant rise in food prices, she added in a statement issued on Saturday.

The organization pointed out that there are only four bakeries operating in Gaza run by the World Food Program, and that demand is so high that people have to start lining up at 3 a.m. in front of bakeries and flour trucks in an attempt to secure their share.

It pointed out that the price of a 25 kg bag of flour reaches about 1,000 shekels in Deir al-Balah, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in northern Gaza.

It continued: Food supplies to approximately 75,000 citizens have been completely cut off for more than 70 days in the northern Gaza Strip, and doctors and patients at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza are living on only one meal a day.

The Foundation stressed that hunger and malnutrition in northern Gaza are increasing rapidly, and that the famine threshold has already been crossed. Despite this, only very limited aid has reached the area.

It stressed that with the occupation continuing to bomb the entire Gaza Strip, simply going out to look for food for family members means risking the lives of individuals. On the first of this month, 13 citizens were martyred and 30 others were injured in an air strike launched by the occupation while citizens were waiting to receive food parcels.

“As starvation continues to be used as a weapon of war in Gaza, it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to get enough food to survive,” said Reham Jafari, the organization’s communications and advocacy officer. “Our partners and humanitarian workers are doing their best to provide food parcels and hot meals wherever possible, but with very limited supplies allowed in, even community kitchens have been forced to close.”

“With no safe place in Gaza, people face a tragic choice: starve to death, or risk being killed or injured while waiting in food queues,” she added. “The world cannot continue to watch in silence as Gaza’s people wither away. A lasting ceasefire is the only way to ensure aid can safely reach more than two million people in need and prevent widespread famine.”