Gaza under siege: Palestinians forced to grind animal fodder to make bread due to wheat flour shortage

Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to intensified Israeli attacks for over 100 days, have begun grinding animal fodder to make bread due to a lack of wheat flour following Tel Aviv’s decision to block humanitarian aid, Anadolu Agency reports.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, killing at least 25,295 Palestinians and injuring 63,000 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Because of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, almost no humanitarian aid has reached the northern part of the enclave.

Palestinians who remain in the region are struggling to get food, with wheat flour being the most they need.

Anadolu cameraman captured moments when Palestinian children taking refuge in the Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza were cleaning animal feed for making flour.

Meanwhile, it was observed that animal feed was being sold in northern Gaza markets because wheat flour was in short supply.

A video circulating on social media shows people in a mill in northern Gaza grinding animal feed to make flour.

UN had warned that 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip, under intense Israeli attacks, are at risk of famine.

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