WFP reduces food parcels in Gaza due to Israel’s bombing
The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said yesterday that it has had to reduce the content of food parcels distributed to displaced Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip over the past two months due to disrupted operations as a result of Israel’s war on the enclave.
The UN agency warned that the food distribution centres and community kitchens it supports in Gaza are increasingly being disrupted by Israeli evacuation orders, as desperate Palestinians are squeezed into an “ever-shrinking space”.
“In the last two months, amid continuing catastrophic hunger, WFP has had to reduce the contents of food parcels in Gaza as inflows of aid dipped and supplies dwindled. With two, or occasionally three, border crossings open, roughly half of the required food assistance entered Gaza in July. August is set to end with a similar result,” the UN agency said in a statement.
WFP added that the Palestinians in Gaza are crowded into an ever-shrinking space without adequate sanitation or healthcare and are repeatedly uprooted by evacuation orders that also disrupt the aid centres intended to support them, including the food distributions and community kitchens supported by the WFP.
It explained that the intensity of the conflict, the limited number of border crossings and damaged roads severely hinder its operations.
It warned that roads will become impassable in two months, when rain and flooding is expected.
“Alongside the desperate needs of today, we must think about what’s coming. We won’t be able to bring food to the people of Gaza unless urgent repairs are done on these roads. We must be able to bring in the heavy machinery that is needed and work with communities so we have the labour to fix the roads before the rain comes,” said WFP Palestine Country Director Antoine Renard.