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By Linda Bordoni

Israel’s cutoff of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s 2 million people has sent prices soaring and humanitarian groups into overdrive trying to distribute dwindling stocks to the most vulnerable.

The aid freeze has imperiled the progress aid workers say they have made to stave off famine over the past six weeks during Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas agreed to in January.

After more than 16 months of war, Gaza’s population is entirely dependent on trucked-in food and other aid. Most are displaced from their homes, and many need shelter. Fuel is needed not only to enable trucks to deliver aid but also to keep hospitals, water pumps, bakeries and telecommunications operating.

Israel says the siege aims at pressuring Hamas to accept a U.S ceasefire extension proposal. Israel has delayed moving to the second phase of the deal it reached with Hamas, during which the flow of aid was supposed to continue.

'Starvation policy'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he is prepared to increase the pressure and would not rule out cutting off all electricity to Gaza if Hamas doesn’t comply.

Rights groups have called the cutoff a “starvation policy.” Four days in, the World Food Program, the U.N.'s main food agency, says it has no major stockpile of food in Gaza because it focused on distributing all incoming food to hungry people during Phase 1 of the deal. It said existing stocks are enough to keep bakeries and kitchens running for under two weeks.

According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, there’s also no major stockpile of tents in Gaza, and pointed out that shelter materials that came in during the ceasefire’s first phase were insufficient.

Had they been enough, the organization’s communications chief said,  "we wouldn’t have had infants dying from exposure because of lack of shelter materials and warm clothes and proper medical equipment to treat them.”

(Source: AP and other news agencies)