WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry regarding efforts to increase humanitarian help to Palestinians in urgent need, the State Department said on Thursday.
In a statement, the State Department said that the US Secretary of State reaffirmed the significance of concrete measures to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians in Gaza. It added that Blinken reaffirmed the US’s rejection of the forced displacement of the people of Palestine.
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.
War on Gaza
The United Nations said about 2.2 million Palestinians now need food assistance to survive in the Gaza Strip. 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.”
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. A truce is required “now, if we want to save humanity,” she remarked. The United Nations said about two thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have become homeless, most of the displaced people taking shelters in the south, since Israel started its bombardment in the Gaza Strip.
Similarly, Gaza’s health ministry told the media that 40 patients, including 3 babies, have passed away since Al- Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday.
