(15 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza, Gaza Strip – 14 April 2024
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
1. Tracking of long line of people queuing outside bakery
NARRATION: Hundreds line up to buy bread in northern Gaza.
A delivery of fuel and wheat flour meant this bakery could reopen for the first time since the war began.
2. Various of bakery workers making bread
SOUNDBITE – (Arabic) name not given, bakery worker++PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 2++
“We were surprised this morning by a large number of people in front of the bakery. An incredible number of people were there to get a loaf of bread. Thanks to Allah, we are able to meet the needs of most of them. Praise be to Allah, we have three production lines in the Gaza Strip.”
3. Various of crowd outside bakery
NARRATION: Six months into the fighting, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced and live in dire circumstances. More than a million are on the brink of starvation.
In northern Gaza, the battleground in the first months of Israel’s offensive, aid groups say a famine is imminent.
4. Various of bakery workers making bread
NARRATION: Israel has now opened a new crossing for aid trucks into the north. But the United Nations says persistent distribution problems mean the influx of aid is not felt by residents.
SOUNDBITE – (Arabic) name not given, bakery worker:
“We call on international institutions and everyone involved to continue the flow of flour, diesel and all raw materials for the production of bread. Bread solves a major problem in the Gaza Strip, including the famine crisis.”
5. Various of crowd outside bakery
NARRATION: For now, these families don’t know for how many weeks they’ll be fed.
STORYLINE:
A bakery in Gaza City reopened for the first time since the war began on Sunday, drawing long lines of Palestinians seeking to buy bread amid the food crisis in the enclave.
The World Food Program confirmed Monday it had managed to deliver fuel and wheat flour to the city in Gaza’s north which allowed the bakery the operate again.
Footage showed huge queues in the street outside the store as workers manned the production lines inside.
"An incredible number of people were there to get a loaf of bread. Thanks to Allah, we are able to meet the needs of most of them," one worker told the Associated Press.
A WFP spokeswoman said Saturday’s delivery could allow the bakery to produce 14,000 bread parcels each day.
Aid convoys have struggled to reach northern Gaza, the battleground in the first months of Israel’s ongoing offensive, with international organizations and aid groups saying a famine is imminent.
Israel has opened a new crossing for aid trucks into as it ramps up aid deliveries.
But it also wants to try to delay the return of displaced civilians to the north to prevent militants from regrouping there, while Hamas says it wants a free flow of returnees.
The war has had a staggering toll on civilians in Gaza, with most of the territory’s 2.3 million people displaced by the fighting and living in dire circumstances, with little food and often in tents and no end in sight to their misery.
Large swaths of the urban landscape have been damaged or destroyed, leaving many displaced Palestinians with nowhere to return to.
The conflict started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel. Around 250 people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza.
A deal in November freed about 100 hostages, leaving about 130 in captivity, although Israel says about a quarter of those are dead.
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