UN's bread distribution plan 'unjust,' fails to meet basic needs: Gaza Bakery Owners Association

​​​​​​​GAZA CITY, Palestine/ANKARA

The Gaza Bakery Owners Association has slammed the UN World Food Program's (WFP) newly adopted bread distribution mechanism as "unjust."

It said it fails to meet the minimum needs of Palestinians amid flour shortages and the shutdown of most bakeries.

Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami, chairman of the association, told Anadolu the plan forces "bakeries to operate with limited quantities of flour, sugar, oil, yeast, and fuel to produce bread, and then it is handed over to the WFP for distribution to beneficiaries."

Al-Ajrami stressed that the plan "doesn't meet the minimum needs of residents and displaced people facing famine, tightened siege and continuous closures since last March."

He noted that the association has proposed an alternative, based on directly distributing flour bags to families "as a first phase to ensure basic food security and ease public anger, followed by a second phase to operate bakeries."

But he said the WFP rejected his proposal, insisting on a bakeries-first approach and distribution mechanism.

Al-Ajrami described the mechanism as "unfair," noting that producing such small bread quantities does not meet the actual needs amid total market flour shortages and depleting household stocks, "this is unjust."

Earlier Friday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), described the aid trickling into Gaza as a "needle in a haystack," and said only a "meaningful and uninterrupted flow of aid" can prevent further deterioration of the crisis.

Since March 2, Gaza has faced a full blockade of essential humanitarian supplies, compounded by the resumption of large-scale military attacks by Israeli forces.

Gaza faces catastrophic hunger levels, with UN agencies warning of imminent famine in northern Gaza, in particular, if aid access does not significantly improve.

Since March 2, Gaza has faced a full blockade of essential humanitarian supplies, compounded by the resumption of large-scale military attacks by Israeli forces.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 53,800 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.