October saw an “unprecedented” rise in the cost of water and wheat flour as Palestinians flocked to markets on the second day of the ceasefire.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, food prices have skyrocketed in Gaza over the past month as Israel bombs and imposes a crushing siege on the enclave.

The office on Saturday called the October surge “unprecedented,” at a time when Palestinians are taking advantage of some respite in the fighting to stock up on essential supplies on a second day Four-day ceasefire This includes the release of some Israeli prisoners held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Thousands of people crowded around stalls and shops in the Nuseirat market in the central Gaza Strip to secure urgently needed food supplies. Across the Gaza Strip, people stood in long lines to buy wheat and other staples.

The bureau said food and beverage prices rose 10 percent in October, while vegetable and wheat flour prices rose 32 and 65 percent, respectively. The price of water rose by 100 percent.

Israel suspended aid deliveries to the enclave and restricted fuel supplies after the conflict broke out on October 7, leaving even bakeries closed due to shortages of wheat flour, water and fuel. The United Nations and humanitarian organizations have long warned of the “imminent possibility of famine” and the spread of disease.

The UN said that the armistice The conflict between Israel and Hamas has allowed it to expand deliveries of food, water and medicine to the largest volume since humanitarian aid convoys to Gaza resumed on October 21.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Saturday it had delivered a convoy of 61 trucks carrying relief supplies to Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, whose residents were ordered to evacuate by the Israeli military.

The United Nations said earlier this month that people remaining in the north are resorting to “negative coping mechanisms due to food shortages, including skipping or reducing meals and using unsafe and unhealthy methods of making fires.”

The PRCS said Saturday’s delivery was the largest since the start of the war. The trucks were “loaded with food and non-food items, water, medicines for basic medical care and emergency medical care,” it said on X.

🔴 The largest convoy of 61 aid trucks for the #Gaza and the northern governorates loaded with food and non-food items, water, basic and emergency medical supplies, relief supplies that arrived today via Rafah, and PRCS warehouses in the… pic.twitter.com/NMrQqiYo2R

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 25, 2023

As part of the four-day agreement between Hamas and Israel 137 auxiliary trucks On Friday, the terrorists entered the Gaza Strip after a lull in hostilities.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 129,000 liters (34,000 gallons) of fuel were transported to Gaza for the first time since October 7, along with four trucks carrying cooking gas.

However, aid groups say much more is needed to help the 2.3 million people living in the besieged enclave, describing conditions on the ground as “catastrophic”.

More than 1.7 million people have now been forcibly displaced across the Gaza Strip, many of whom are housed in UN schools that are severely overcrowded.

According to the United Nations, 2.2 million people need food aid to survive.

More than 44,000 cases of diarrhea and 70,000 cases of respiratory infections have been reported.