The World Food Program has run out of food, said the United Nations Agency on Friday, 54 days after Israel imposed a complete blockade in the Gaza Strip.
“Today, WFP delivered its latest food stocks to hot food kitchens in the Gaza Strip. These kitchens are expected to be left without food in the next few days,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Since Israel imposed its blockade on March 2, stopping the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial goods in the enclave, the PMA has been the only stable source and the largest supplier of hot foods in Gaza.
Only a few smaller agencies still provide food in Gaza, including World Central Kitchen, which said in a publication on Facebook that I was “working without stopping to stretch the supplies of flour and bake as much bread as possible” inside its bakery, the last one that still works in Gaza.
With all closed border crossings, no humanitarian or commercial supply, including more than 116,000 tons of PMA foods waiting in the aid corridors, entered Gaza in more than seven weeks, said the help agency.
“This is the longest closure that Gaza has faced, exacerbating the already fragile markets and food systems,” he said, added: “People are running out of ways of dealing, and fragile gains made during the top high fire have been unbelievable.”
The news occurs after WFP at the end of March said that all its 25 bakeries in the Gaza strip had closed due to the lack of fuel and flour in the territory.
Israel says that its blockade is crucial for its objective of weakening the control of the militant group on the population, while Israeli officials have repeatedly declared that “there is no shortage of help in Gaza and accused Hamas of retention supplies.
After a meeting at the Mar-A-Lago estate of President Donald Trump with senior officials of the Republican Party, Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Wednesday that “they expressed their support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that food deposits and help should be bombed to create military and politics pressure to return to our hostages to our hostages.
The Israeli government has been accused of using the hunger of civilians as a method of war in the Gaza Strip, which the UN said could be equivalent to war crimes under international humanitarian law.
With essential food products that include safe water and fuel for cooking in scarcity, more than 2 million people in Gaza now face an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death, warned the PMA.
The extreme food insecurity has also raised serious nutritional concerns for vulnerable populations, including children under five, pregnant and elderly women.
The global nutrition group, a coalition of humanitarian groups, warned that only in March, 3,708 children were identified for acute malnutrition, of 84,000 projected children, a marked increase from February, when 2,053 children were admitted to a total of 92,000 projected, Ocha said in a report on Thursday.
The video images published by WFP showed exhaustion of food supply in a warehouse in Gaza, and the children align in food stalls to receive hot meals and bread. The agency said that despite providing a “critical line of life” to those in need, it had reached only half of the population in Gaza.
With the prices of food inside the strip they also shoot at 1,400% compared to during the top fire, people are now forced to look for articles to burn a meal, said the WFP.
Further Of 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the local Ministry of Health, since Israel launched its offensive in the enclave after the attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Some 1,200 people were killed during attacks in southern Israel and around 250 taken as hostages, marking an important escalation in a decades conflict.
The situation has raised generalized concerns between international NGOs and UN agencies that work in Gaza, and the CEO of 12 important help organizations in mid -April warn of help systems collapse as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza reached the worst levels in 18 months.
“The famine is not just a risk, but it probably develops rapidly in almost all parts of Gaza,” the CEO said in a statement published by Oxfam, adding: “Let’s do our work.”
On Thursday, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom also urged Israel to restart the humanitarian aid flow in Gaza. “Palestinian civilians, including one million children, face an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death. This must end,” they said in a statement.
They added: “We urged Israel to immediately restart a rapid flow without obstacles to humanitarian aid to Gaza to meet the needs of all civilians.”
