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The International Central Cumer Organization announced today, Thursday, that all its humanitarian operations were stopped in the Gaza Strip, due to the depletion of food stocks and cooking fuel, as a result of the Israeli blockade since the beginning of last March.
The relief organization said in a statement that it no longer has the necessary supplies to cook meals or prepare bread in Gaza, after it has provided during the past 18 months more than 130 million meals and 26 million loaves of bread to the trapped residents.
She emphasized that her trucks loaded with food supplies and cooking fuel are still stuck on the border in Egypt, Jordan and Israel since March, due to the occupation authorities prohibiting the entry of aid to the sector, which is inhabited by more than two million Palestinians.
“Our trucks are ready to enter, but they cannot move without a permit. It is necessary to allow the flow of humanitarian aid,” said Chef Jose Andres.
The organization added that its field kitchens no longer contain sufficient ingredients to continue the work, noting that it was providing daily meals for hundreds of thousands of residents. In light of the current situation, only drinking water is still providing.
The occupation authorities accuse the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) of transforming part of humanitarian aid for military purposes, which is denied by international organizations, while the inhabitants of Gaza face a severe food shortage, amid warnings of the exacerbation of famine.
The United Nations Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that more than 2.3 million people in the sector suffer from severe food insecurity, while Israel has closed all Gaza crossings in front of food, medicine and supplies since the second of last March.
This comes at a time when the humanitarian catastrophe is escalating in the Strip, as the Israeli war that has continued since October 7, 2023 has resulted in the death and injury of more than 171,000 people, most of them children and women, in addition to more than 11,000 missing.