{"id":5020,"date":"2006-03-01T12:29:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-01T10:29:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-03-21T13:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T11:44:14","slug":"epalestine-interview-un-says-key-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/2006\/03\/epalestine-interview-un-says-key-food\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW-UN says key food stocks dwindling in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alerting humanitarians to emergencies<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

             <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

INTERVIEW-UN says key food stocks dwindling in Gaza<\/strong><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

01 Mar 2006 07:44:38 GMT<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Source: Reuters<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

By Adam Entous<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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JERUSALEM, March 1 (Reuters) – Stocks of wheat, sugar and cooking oil are dwindling in Gaza and could begin to run out within days unless Israel reopens the strip’s main crossing point for goods, U.N. officials said on Wednesday.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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David Shearer, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said humanitarian conditions had deteriorated since Hamas’s Jan. 25 Palestinian election victory, in part because of Israel’s closure of the main crossing into Gaza at Karni and other security measures.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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"This is getting to precarious levels," Shearer said in an interview with Reuters.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Israel, which has long viewed the United Nations as pro-Palestinian, said the increase in restrictions was due to an "enhanced terrorist threat" and not a response to the election victory of Hamas Islamic militants.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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The army said Israel had offered to reroute supplies to Gaza through another crossing, but the Palestinians declined.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Israel has halted tax revenue transfers to the Palestinian Authority and has asked donor nations to freeze all but humanitarian aid to pressure Hamas to renounce violence, recognise the Jewish state, and abide by interim peace deals.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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According to Shearer, sugar stocks will begin to run out in Gaza in as little as two or three days unless Karni is reopened.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Sugar prices have risen by more than 25 percent because of Israel’s frequent closure of the crossing point, Shearer said.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Supplies of wheat flour to make bread, Gaza’s main staple, will likewise begin to run out in as little as four days unless truckloads of wheat are let in, Shearer said.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Israel ended its 38-year military rule of the Gaza Strip last year, but retains control of all access points for bringing goods in and out of the territory, citing security concerns.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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AID AFFECTED  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Shortages in Gaza have become so acute that aid programmes are starting to be affected, said Arnold Vercken, the Gaza and West Bank representative for the World Food Programme, which delivers wheat flour to 146,000 Gazans.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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"For the time being, we are on hold," Vercken said.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Israel closed Karni for 21 days between Jan. 15 and Feb 5, Shearer’s office said in a report issued on Tuesday.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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An Israeli army spokeswoman said Karni was closed again on Feb 21 after a mysterious explosion in the area. It has remained closed since then because of "continued security alerts", the spokeswoman said.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Vercken said even though the daily flow of basic commodities into Gaza has stopped, "we’re not talking famine" because many households in Gaza have private stocks of wheat flour that could last them a month or longer.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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But with dwindling supplies and prices on the rise, poorer Gazans will be hardest hit, he said.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Vercken said wheat mills in Gaza normally try to keep on hand between 26,000 tonnes and 30,000 tonnes of wheat — two months’ supply — but are now down to their last 1,200 tonnes of wheat.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Palestinians depend on foreign aid totalling more than $1 billion a year. It is unclear how much of that money would be withheld by international donors once Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction, forms a government.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Since a Palestinian revolt erupted in 2000, Hamas has masterminded at least 60 suicide bombings against Israelis. But it has largely abided by a truce declared last year.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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© 1998-2001 Reuters Limited.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Alerting humanitarians to emergencies              INTERVIEW-UN says key food stocks dwindling in Gaza 01 Mar 2006 07:44:38 GMT Source: Reuters By Adam Entous JERUSALEM, March 1 (Reuters) – Stocks of wheat, sugar and cooking oil are dwindling in Gaza and could begin to run out within days unless Israel reopens the strip’s main crossing point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1401],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-5020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-hamas"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Bahour","user_url":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour","job_title":"","description":"

Sam Bahour<\/strong> is a Palestinian-American business consultant, writer, and commentator based in Al-Bireh\/Ramallah, Palestine. He is the principal of Applied Information Management (AIM)<\/a>, a consultancy specializing in business development and startup advisory services.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour played a foundational role in establishing two of Palestine\u2019s publicly traded companies: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He co-founded Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE), of which he is now an emeritus member, and served as an independent director on the board of Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. from 2004 to 2025. He currently serves on the board of Just Vision<\/a> and The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

He frequently gives talks to delegations visiting Palestine on the subjects of Palestine\u2019s political economy, Palestinian Politics 101, and a general orientation to the state of affairs under Israeli military occupation.<\/p>\r\n

A prolific writer on Palestinian affairs, Bahour has been published in major international outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera America, Le Monde diplomatique, Al-Monitor, +972 Magazine, The Hill, and Arab News. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, CNN, BBC, and other broadcast media.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour is the co-editor of Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians<\/a><\/em> (Olive Branch Press, 1993) and was profiled in the bestselling anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash<\/a><\/em>, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, in a chapter authored by Chabon titled \u201cThe Tallest Man in Ramallah<\/a>.\u201d He holds an Associate\u2019s and Bachelor\u2019s degree in Computer Technology from Youngstown State University, and a Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA \u2014 a joint program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\r\n

He tweets at @SamBahour<\/a>, blogs at www.epalestine.ps<\/a>, and may be reached at sbahour[AT]gmail[DOT]com.<\/p>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7981,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5020\/revisions\/7981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5020"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}