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Isolated Gaza Goes Hungry

Food is hard to come by for Palestinians in Hamas-controlled region

By Caroline Zimmerman, Newser User

Posted Jun 29, 2007 3:00 PM CDT

(Newser) – Fuel shortages have become familiar, and now food staples like flour and sugar are increasingly hard to come by in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Aid agencies are doing their best to forestall an impending humanitarian crisis, the Globe and Mail reports, but with the main commercial crossing from Israel closed indefinitely, they are having trouble keeping up.

A trickle of supplies enters through two smaller crossings, but it's not enough to feed 1.1 million refugees who rely on handouts to survive. The quality of life in Gaza has deteriorated since the West cut off aid after Hamas came to power in 2006; today, wood fires often stand in for cooking gas, and donkey carts are replacing vehicles.

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

here late last week. (AP Photo/Hatem Omar, MaanImages) (Associated Press)

A Palestinian man carries a sack of flour from the UN Relief and Works Agency, (UNRWA) aid distribution station in Gaza City, Wednesday, June 20, 2007. The U.N. World Food Program, meanwhile, began bringing... (Associated Press)

A Palestinian woman sits next to sacks of flour outside the UN Relief and Works Agency, (UNRWA) aid distribution station in Gaza City, Wednesday, June 20, 2007. The U.N. World Food Program, meanwhile,... (Associated Press)

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Isolated Gaza Goes Hungry