(22 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deir al-Balah – 22 May 2025
1. Various of flour bags stacked inside bakery in Deir al-Balah.
2. Various of worker adding flour to the automatic kneading machine
3. Various of bread dough being prepared in kneading machine
4. Various of World Food Program official Vladimir Jovcev visiting bakery
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Vladimir Jovcev, World Food Program official:
"(The) Humanitarian situation in Gaza is in dire condition. What we need to do is to continue to bring humanitarian aid, advocate for the crossings to be open, and make sure that the food goes to the ones mostly in need. To do that, we need the help of everyone, we need the help of international community, we need the help of the civil society in Gaza, the NGOs and the communities."
6. Various of workers in bakery collecting loaves of bread and placing them in bags
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Vladimir Jovcev, World Food Program official:
"What we brought is definitely not enough, but we hope that the borders will remain open and we’ll be able to bring more aid into Gaza. 2.2 million people of Gaza – almost everyone depends on humanitarian aid."
8. Various of loaves of bread moving along in bread-making process
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Vladimir Jovcev, World Food Program official:
"Symbolically you know, the smell of fresh bread is the smell of hope. So we hope that you know, the borders – we appeal for the borders to remain open, the crossings to remain open and then we’re able to bring more humanitarian aid to assist everyone in here."
10. Various of workers placing loaves of bread in bags and weighing them
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Vladimir Jovcev, World Food Program official:
"The bread produced in this bakery will not be sold at the moment on the counters in the bakeries. It is going to distributed through out existing network of partners, mainly the ones operating the hot meals kitchen, and given to the ones that are mostly in need."
12. Various of bread bags inside the bakery
STORYLINE:
For the first time in over a month, the Bana bakery in Gaza’s central city of Deir al-Balah has opened its doors after the United Nations World Food Program was able to bring in flour to bake Arabic flatbread, a local staple.
The stacks of bags of wheat flour and the dozens of loaves of freshly baked bread being bagged by the bakery workers was rare good news for the Palestinians of Gaza, who have struggled with a dire humanitarian crisis after Israel closed off the border crossings.
Vladimir Jovcev of the U.N.’s World Food Program said it was "definitely not enough… but we hope that the borders will remain open and we’ll be able to bring more aid into Gaza."
He added, that the smell of fresh bread was symbolically "the smell of hope."
Israel imposed a blockade on all imports, including food, medicine and shelter, at the beginning of March, shortly before ending a ceasefire with Hamas.
It announced an easing of the blockade this week and has allowed around 200 trucks to enter since Monday.
But U.N. agencies say Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza make it difficult to retrieve and distribute the aid.
As a result, little of it has so far reached those in need. Around 600 trucks entered per day during the ceasefire.
Aid groups have collected humanitarian aid carried by about 90 trucks, out of a total of nearly 200 that have entered Gaza since Israel began allowing limited goods in earlier this week, the United Nations said Thursday.
AP video shot by Abdel Kareem Hana
Production: Wafaa Shurafa
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