The World Food Program (WFP) says its capacity to provide basic necessities to the population of Gaza is on the verge of collapse in the face of escalating Israeli attacks.
“There is not enough food. People are starving,” WFP deputy director Carl Skau wrote on X, formerly Twitter, following a visit to the besieged coastal strip on Friday.
He said his team had reached more than a million people, “but the situation is untenable. We need to get our supplies in,” Skau wrote, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Only a fraction of the necessary food reaches the Gaza Strip, there is a lack of fuel and no one is safe, Skau continued in a WFP statement, adding: “We cannot do our job.”
Camps and emergency shelters were overcrowded, he wrote, while the dull thunder of Israeli bombing could be heard every day in the background.
“With the breakdown of law and order, any meaningful humanitarian operation is impossible,” the UN official said.
“Gazans live crowded in unsanitary shelters or on the streets as winter approaches, they are sick and do not have enough food,” he added.
Israel is continuing its bombing of Gaza after the United States on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, a move strongly condemned by humanitarian groups.
In a rare move, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres triggered the vote by invoking Article 99 of the UN charter, a measure unused for decades, declaring: “The people of Gaza look to the ‘abyss’.
At least 17,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in two months and nearly 49,000 injured, while many people are still trapped under the rubble.
Skau said the recent seven-day truce showed that humanitarian aid can be provided if conditions permit.
“We have food in the trucks, but we need more than one pass. And once the trucks are inside, we need free and safe passage to reach Palestinians wherever they are. This will only be possible with a humanitarian ceasefire and, ultimately, we need this conflict to end,” he said.
“Nine out of ten people don’t eat every day”
On Saturday, Skau told the Reuters news agency that a new process for inspecting aid to Gaza at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, called Kerem Shalom by Israel, was being tested.
Israel has so far rejected UN calls to open Karem Abu Salem, but both signaled on Thursday that the crossing could soon facilitate the delivery of humanitarian supplies to Gaza.
So far, limited amounts of aid have been delivered from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, which is poorly equipped to handle large numbers of trucks.
Trucks traveled more than 40 km south to Egypt’s border with Israel before returning to Rafah, causing bottlenecks and delays.
“It’s good, it’s useful because it would also be the first time that we could bring a pipeline from Jordan. But we also need this entry point because it would make all the difference,” Skau said.
Speaking to reporters in Israel earlier this week, Colonel Elad Goren, head of the civil department of COGAT, Israel’s agency for civil coordination with the Palestinians, said: “We will open Kerem Shalom just for inspection. This will happen in the coming days.
Goren said a COGAT team was engaged in discussions with the United States, the UN and Egypt on increasing the volume of humanitarian aid.
“We have mobilized our internal resources as a priority to have food available in Egypt and Jordan to reach some 1,000,000 people in a month. We’re ready to roll. The trucks are ready to go,” Skau said.
Skau described the situation in Gaza as increasingly chaotic as people scavenged what they could from aid distribution points.
“The question arises how long this can continue, because the humanitarian operation is collapsing,” he said.
“Half the population is starving, nine out of ten people don’t eat every day. Obviously, the needs are enormous.