ISRAEL’S ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza has forced World Central Kitchen to shut down its community kitchens, the organisation announced today, saying that warehouses are empty, and it has no way to replenish supplies.

The kitchens had been serving 133,000 meals daily and baking 80,000 loaves of bread in Gaza, but the group said it has now run out of food in the devastated Palestinian territory. 

“There is no flour left in our mobile bakery,” the organisation confirmed.

The aid group’s founder, celebrity chef Jose Andres, said: “Our trucks, loaded with food and supplies, are waiting in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, ready to enter Gaza. 

“But they cannot move without permission. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow.”

The shutdown marks a devastating blow to Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, who are facing worsening starvation nearly 19 months into Israel’s military campaign. 

The World Food Programme reported in April that its food stocks in Gaza had been depleted under the ongoing blockade, cutting off one of the territory’s last major food lifelines.

Israel imposed the blockade on March 2 and resumed full-scale bombardment just over two weeks later, shattering a brief ceasefire. It claims that both actions seek to press armed Palestinian group Hamas into releasing the last of the hostages it took during an October 2023 attack on southern Israel. 

However, human rights groups have condemned the blockade as a “starvation tactic” that threatens the entire population and may constitute a war crime.

Gaza’s remaining community kitchens had been a crucial lifeline, but many are now closed. 

Others face chaos, with desperate crowds of men, women and children competing for shrinking rations. 

Bakeries have closed, and water distribution is grinding to a halt due to a fuel shortage.

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 10,000 children in Gaza have been treated for acute malnutrition so far this year. 

March saw a sharp rise, with 3,600 cases — an 80 per cent jump from February, according to United Nations children’s fund Unicef. 

Nearly half of Gaza’s 200 nutrition centres have been shut down due to displacement or Israeli strikes.

Cogat, the Israeli military body that controls aid access, said the blockade would remain in place unless government policy changed.

World Central Kitchen previously suspended operations in April last year after seven of its aid workers were killed by Israeli air strikes.

Meanwhile, medical needs in Gaza continue to escalate. 

The number of people with burns caused by Israeli air strikes has surged fivefold at Nasser Hospital, according to Doctors Without Borders. 

Burn injuries are more severe, often covering up to 40 per cent of patients’ bodies.

Among the wounded is four-year-old Layan Ibrahim Sahloul, who suffered second-degree burns across her face, foot and stomach after a strike on her family’s home in Khan Younis. 

Layan was pulled from the rubble, but her pregnant mother and two siblings were killed.

“She has become withdrawn and afraid,” said her aunt, Raga Sahloul. “She also suffers from malnutrition. 

“I’m afraid it will take her months instead of weeks to heal.”