“It’s horror”: the head of the World Food Program calls for an immediate ceasefire and “unhindered access” to besieged territories.
Northern Gaza is experiencing “widespread famine”, the head of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has said, warning that the territory is “moving south”.
In an interview with NBC News that will air Sunday, Cindy McCain said her comments were based on what WFP has seen and experienced on the ground. UN officials and humanitarian agencies have been warning against such a scenario for months.
“It is the horror. “It’s so hard to watch and it’s so hard to hear,” McCain told US Network’s Meet the Press.
“What we are asking for and what we are continually asking for is a ceasefire and the ability to have unhindered access, safe entry through the various ports and border crossings,” he said. she declared, according to a video extract of the interview.
On Saturday, a delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas was in Egypt to continue negotiations on a ceasefire, amid increased international pressure to reach an agreement.
Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said there had been “some progress.”
Yet Israel has threatened to launch its ground invasion of Rafah, in the southern tip of the enclave, home to more than 1.4 million displaced Palestinians who have fled the Israeli army’s relentless bombardment in other parts of the Gaza Strip.
Israel has severely restricted the entry of essential humanitarian supplies into Gaza despite warnings from its allies and the United Nations of imminent famine in parts of the Palestinian territory. Its army has also repeatedly attacked and killed Palestinian civilians waiting to receive aid in the Gaza Strip.
This week it reopened the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing into northern Gaza, but Israeli settlers attacked two humanitarian convoys sent by Jordan. The UN said the amounts remain insufficient to meet the vast and growing needs of Gaza’s starving population.
The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has previously warned that more than 70 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents face “catastrophic hunger” at any time between mid-March and May.
On Saturday, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 34,654 Palestinians had been killed and 77,908 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.
