Smell of Fresh Bread Draws Smiles of Hope on Gazans’ Faces As Bakeries Resume Work
(Arab World Press) - At 5:00 am, Mohamed Hamada, a child, got in line outside one of the bakeries that has resumed operations in the northern Gaza Strip. Three hours later, he was able to buy a bag of fresh bread.
“I’ve been waiting in the line since 05:00 a.m. so that I can take the bread home and make my family happy. We want all bakeries to work so that we can eat. It’s been six months since we last tasted bread,” he said with a joyful face.
Bakeries in the Gaza Strip had stopped working due to the power cut-off and the lack of fuel and flour caused by the war and the Israeli blockade on the embattled enclave, ongoing since 7 October.
Areas in northern Gaza saw a very limited number of bakeries starting to resume work, as long lines of people waited from dawn until evening to get bread.
Moaz Al-Ghafir, tired from waiting in line under the heat of the sun, wished for all bakeries to open their doors and work again, so he could get bread more easily.
Mohamed Arafat, another Gazan, said it was “so hard” standing in a line for several hours to get bread, adding that "crowds of people need bread."
“Even if ten bakeries worked, it is still not enough compared to the large number of consumers,” he noted.