As Israel’s aid blockade lasts for an eighth week, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) claims that its food stocks in Gaza are completely exhausted.
The WFP confirmed in a statement on Friday that it had “delivered its last remaining food stocks” in Gaza to neighborhood kitchens, which it anticipates will run out of completely “in the coming days.”
In Gaza, according to the organization’s Palestine representative Antoine Renard, more than 400 000 people rely on WFP aid, leaving them with little recourse if this lifeline fails.
He claimed that “all of us local NGOs are in short.” “We are being exhausted,”
Israel has completely blocked all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza since March 2, violating a 2024 World Court order to facilitate the movement of aid, including food, medicine, and fuel.
The WFP reports that the food stockpiled following a nearly two-month ceasefire earlier this year has largely been exhausted, while the price of the little food that is still available has increased by 1,400%.
Hani Mahmoud, a journalist from Gaza City, claimed that there were numerous cases of hunger and malnutrition.
“People are hungry,” he said. He claimed that they are already rationing supplies. Families running out of supplies are also at risk, according to the statement.
It’s “hard to imagine” how the hundreds of thousands of families relying on the WFP’s daily meals are “going to get by,” he continued.
The dwindling food supply may lead to the starvation of “thousands of Palestinian families,” according to Gaza’s government media office.
According to the report, 50 children and 52 people have already died as a result of malnourishment and hunger, while over one million children per day are affected by this.
‘Intolerable’
Israel has not shown any signs of reversing the blockade despite the humanitarian crisis. Israel Katz, the country’s defense minister, stated last week that Israel would continue to block aid and that it was a “pressure” tactic used by Hamas.
Israel’s military has repeatedly alleged Hamas of stealing aid, which the organization denies, and demands that it keep all supplies a secret to stop the fighters from obtaining it.
Even some of Israel’s closest allies have publicly decried the strategy, though. Germany, France, and the United Kingdom all collectively condemned the action on Wednesday and expressed concern that it would “accrobate the risk of starvation, epidemic disease, and death”
Numerous Israeli attacks result in the death of victims.
Israeli attacks spread throughout the war-torn enclave as the food crisis grew worse. According to the Gaza Government Media Office on Friday, at least 78 people have died in the past 24 hours. According to local media reports, this included a woman killed by a quadcopter attack close to the Jabalia refugee camp and 15 people who were the victims of air raids on homes in Khan Younis.
According to sources who were cited by the Reuters news agency, efforts to restart the stalled ceasefire talks in Cairo continued. A Hamas delegation was scheduled to arrive in Cairo on Friday.
Hamas insists on a permanent ceasefire, while Israel only offers temporary truces and demands that Hamas disarm, something the organization rejects.
According to Reuters, mediators are currently developing a new proposal that would call for the end of fighting and the release of all captives in Gaza, according to several knowledgeable sources.
More than 1,900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since the ceasefire ended on March 18, according to Gaza’s health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as a result of Israel’s annexation of what it refers to as a buffer zone.
Source: Aljazeera
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