Extract from ABC News
Israel cut off deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza months ago, and now supplies are running out. (ABC News)
Aid groups say people will soon die from hunger as Israel's blockade of food and other aid to Gaza extends into its third month.
Israel stopped allowing any supplies, including food and medicine, into Gaza on March 2 in a bid to pressure the militant group Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages.
Now, community kitchens that have been feeding hundreds of thousands of Gazans are about to close because they have run out of supplies.
"Of course, [then] we will die of starvation," Gazan mother Karima Suliman Subhi Abu Qmen told the ABC.
"We rely only on God and the soup kitchen."
Families are given one pot of soup per day. (ABC News)
Ms Abu Qmen is one of hundreds of Gazans who have been queuing daily at the soup kitchen in Mughraqa in central Gaza.
She and the other families get one small pot of food each, per day.
"We are a family of five, so it's not enough food. It's just one pot, and they don't give any more," she said.
"My children go to sleep hungry. They cry until they fall asleep."
Tayseer Alaideh, a father of four, also queues each morning.
"Our lives depend on the soup kitchen. I am here every day from the morning till midday, because there is no money to buy anything from the market," he said.
Community kitchens closing in Gaza as Israeli blockade cuts food supply. (Eric Tlozek)
Tonnes of food kept outside Gaza
The soup kitchens became even more critical last month when the World Food Program (WFP) closed its bakeries due to a lack of flour.
But even these lifelines are about to close because they too have run out of food.
Most of the aid organisations that have been feeding Gazans said they no longer have any supplies.
"There is no food," Ruth James, Oxfam's regional humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, told the ABC.
Hundreds of people in Gaza depend on the soup kitchen. (ABC News)
"The WFP has completely run out of food supplies. Similarly, Oxfam ran out of food over a month ago from our warehouses. We have not been able to bring in any humanitarian aid whatsoever … since the 1st of March.
"We actually have over 7,000 food parcels stuck in a warehouse in Jordan that we are desperate to bring into Gaza and we're not able to because of the Israeli-imposed blockade, which has resulted in the complete closure of all access points into Gaza and is an extremely brutal form of collective punishment that Israel is unleashing on the population of Gaza."
Children queue for hours to collect soup every day. (ABC News)
The WFP said there are 116,000 tonnes of food sitting just outside Gaza, enough to feed the population for four months, if Israel allowed it in.
It said food prices in Gaza have increased by up to 1,400 per cent since the ceasefire ended.
The United Nations is begging the Israeli authorities and "those who can still reason with them" to lift the blockade immediately.
"International law is unequivocal: As the occupying power, Israel must allow humanitarian support in. Aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip," Tom Fletcher, the under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief coordinator said in a statement.
"Blocking aid starves civilians. It leaves them without basic medical support. It strips them of dignity and hope. It inflicts a cruel collective punishment. Blocking aid kills."
Israel says "Hamas hijacked the humanitarian aid to rebuild its terror machine". (ABC News)
Israel says it is withholding aid to force hostage release
The Israeli government has previously alleged aid is being withheld and exploited by the militant group Hamas.
It denies it has an obligation as the occupying power under international law to provide food for Gazans.
UN and aid groups said it was illegal for Israel to withhold aid to force Hamas to release hostages. (ABC News)
"Israel is monitoring the situation on the ground, and there is no shortage of aid in Gaza," Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a social media post on April 23.
"According to Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, a side is not obliged to allow in aid if it is 'likely to assist the military or economic efforts of the enemy'. Hamas hijacked the humanitarian aid to rebuild its terror machine."
But Israel's government has also openly said it is withholding aid to pressure Hamas to release the 59 hostages who remain in Gaza.
The UN and aid groups said that is illegal.
The UK, France and Germany have collectively accused Israel of politicising aid.
"It is a collective punishment. It is illegal under international humanitarian law," Ms James said.
"We believe that the scale and severity of breaches of international humanitarian law that Israel is carrying out inside of Gaza, you know, could constitute war crimes. And we believe that there is a risk of genocide being carried out."
Israel's defence minister has previously stated the blockade is compliant with international law and the Israeli government has long said it is acting in self-defence, not committing genocide.
The supplies relied on to feed the people of Gaza are running out. (ABC News)
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