NEW YORK: An official from the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) warned on Thursday that almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip risks “sliding into hunger hell” unless fuel deliveries are permitted to restore and there is a quick increase in food provisions.
According to Arab News, the development comes as the United Nations said about 2.2 million Palestinians now need food assistance to survive. The WFP said that people are facing the immediate possibility of starvation due to winter season.
Abeer Etefa, the World Food Program’s senior official for the Middle East and North Africa region, stated: “The failure of food supply chains is a disastrous turning point in an already very terrible situation. The Gaza Strip was not an easy place to live in before October 7, and if the situation was good before this crisis, it is now terrible.”
2.2 Million Need Food Aid in Gaza: WFP
She said that people in the Gaza Strip are increasingly desperate in their efforts to obtain bread and other food supplies, and cases of malnutrition and dehydration are quickly increasing by the day.
According to Arab News, though aid trucks are “trickling into Gaza,” it is proving very difficult to get the small amounts of water and food that cross the border to those in need as roads have been damaged by the conflict and fuel is in very short supply due to Israeli blockade.
She further said that the current food systems in the Gaza Strip are collapsing. She maintained that food production has come to halt while markets have also collapsed, fishermen cannot make access into the sea. A truce is required “now, if we want to save humanity,” she remarked.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-run government media office has alleged Israel of lying regarding evidences found in Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip. Ismail Al Thawabta, the director of the Gaza Government Media office dismissed Israel’s accusations that Hamas’s equipment was found in the hospital.
