Gaza bakeries: Wheat stores empty by end of current week

GAZA, (PIC)-- Abdul Nasser Al-Ajrami, the head of the Gaza society for bakers, has said that his society was coordinating with the PA economy ministry the distribution of the remaining stock of wheat.

Ajrami told PIC that the remaining quantities of wheat would run out by end of this week at the most.

He noted that no wheat shipments had entered the Strip for more than a week, and added that less than 20 bakeries are still working while the majority stopped functioning due to the lack of wheat, electricity and gas.

Ajrami warned of a "food disaster", if the Israeli occupation authority did not allow entry of wheat and flour consignments within the few coming days.

Meanwhile, the European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza lashed out at the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Husam Zaki who said that his country is not responsible for the Gaza crisis.

Dr. Arafat Madi, the head of the campaign in a statement in Brussels on Monday, said that Egypt's insistence on retaining the Rafah border terminal with Gaza closed despite international warnings of its catastrophic consequences meant that the Egyptian government was an accomplice to the siege on Gaza.

He said that the Rafah border agreement, which the Egyptian government finds as an excuse to keep the terminal closed, expired more than a year ago and there is no justification for retaining the border closed in the light of the escalating suffering of the Gaza people.

23-12-2008