Bakeries in the Gaza Strip will soon have to shut down for want of flour if Israel does not ease its crippling blockade of the Hamas-run territory, the bakers' association warned on Thursday.

"All the bakeries will close in two days at the most if the Israeli blockade continues," the head of the association, Abdelnasser al-Ajrami, told AFP.

"Out of a total of 47 bakeries, 27 are already closed, while another 20 are only working part-time because of power cuts and a shortage of fuel."

Since a flare-up of violence on the Gaza-Israel border on 5 November, Israel has tightened the blockade it first imposed on the territory when the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June last year.

Almost daily over the past fortnight, deliveries of both food and fuel for Gaza's sole power plant have been blocked.

The result has been that the territory has received neither Israeli-produced flour nor grain for its only flour mill, which was forced to shut down on Wednesday, Ajrami said.

Last week, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees was forced to suspend food deliveries to half of Gaza's 1.5 million population. It distributed some rations on Tuesday after Israel allowed some food in the previous day.

Israel had been expected to ease its blockade after an Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas went into effect on 19 June.

It says continuing rocket and mortar attacks have made this impossible but Hamas accuses it of failing to deliver on its side of the bargain.

AFP