WFP Palestine: Gaza Market Monitoring – Flash Update #2 (October 2023)

KEY FINDINGS

• Following the military escalation on 7 October, a siege has been imposed on Gaza along with a shutdown of electricity, food, water and fuel supplies, leading to shortages and impeded access to essential services and needs.

• According to WFP rapid remote market monitoring, shops showed a continuous decrease in the quantities and an increase in the prices of main food commodities such as wheat flour, eggs, and vegetables.

• Most shops have food stocks for less than one week and movement restrictions and fuel shortages are compromising shops’ ability to replenish their stocks.

• The Gaza Strip’s estimated overall stocks of key food items are sufficient to cover the following durations: 27 days for wheat flour, 23 days for sugar, 18 days for pulses, 16 days for rice, and 10 days for vegetable oil.

• Four WFP contracted shops have been damaged and 17 are closed due to the conflict. Food shortages, shop closure and the continuous airstrike are expected to further decrease WFP beneficiaries’ ability to redeem their food e-voucher aggravating the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip.

• The majority of bakeries are operational and have remained open despite safety concerns but face occasional closures due to energy disruptions. However only one out of the five mills is functioning.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

Following the military escalation between Palestinian armed groups and Israel on October 7, Gaza has been under siege, with the cutoff of electricity, food, water, and fuel supplies, resulting in blocked access to and restricted movement within Gaza. Starting from October 11, Gaza’s only power plant ran out of fuel and shut down. Essential services are currently relying on backup generators and solar power.

Gaza Strip is experiencing an unprecedented level of conflict, leading to the destruction of homes, infrastructure, and posing a severe threat to people’s lives and hampering their access to essential needs. The situation is negatively affecting shops’ stock availability and households’ access to food commodities.

As of October 17, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Gaza is estimated at about one million, including about 400,000 IDPs staying in UNRWA schools in central and southern Gaza alone, in increasingly dire conditions. The exact number of IDPs in Gaza City and northern Gaza is challenging to ascertain due to security concerns and the constant movement of people₁. The World Food Programme (WFP) has been trying to assess the availability of food stock in markets, particularly at the retail level.

In response to emergency, WFP has reached more than half a million people with emergency food and cash aid. At the beginning of the escalation, 220,000 displaced people in 92 UN-designated shelters received fresh bread in Gaza. On 16 October, WFP reached 170,000 displaced people across 30 shelters. This situation points to the increasing congestion within these shelters, as the average number of people per shelter has nearly tripled. With the shortage of electricity and stocks, only five of the 23 bakeries contracted by WFP to provide fresh bread in shelters, are currently operational. In result, WFP was forced to reduce the food ration per person.

WFP provided cash transfer of USD 12.4 to 138,863 displaced people (those who had been previously suspended due to funding shortfalls in June 2023) and cash emergency top-up of USD 5 to 164,000 of our regular beneficiaries who had already received their October transfer. People receive cash in the form of electronic vouchers to buy food from shops that are still open. Approximately 90 percent are in Gaza (10 percent in West Bank).

So far, 175,115 people have redeemed their vouchers. WFP is also addressing requests from Humanitarian partners to use WFP’s cash-based transfers platform to reach affected populations.

CONTEXT PRIOR TO THE CRISIS

Prior to the hostilities, the economic conditions in the Gaza Strip were already poor: The estimated population of the Gaza Strip is 2.226 million ₂, 68 percent of whom are refugees and 32 percent non-refugees. Their distribution is as follows: 749 thousand in Gaza, 444 thousand in North Gaza, 439 thousand in Khan Younis, 319 thousand in Deir Al-Balah, and 275 thousand in Rafah. The majority of the population is located in the north. Furthermore, among the Gaza Strip population, there are approximately 1.24 million people in need of food assistance ₃. In addition, over 73 percent of households in Gaza Strip received humanitarian assistance for survival, with 68.3 percent citing NGO or charity assistance as their primary income source (MSNA,2022). Moreover, the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip stands at 61 percent ₄ and it holds the highest unemployment rate at 46.4 percent ₅.