5/31/2024–|Last updated: 5/31/202410:59 PM (Mecca time)
The United Nations said on Friday that life has become “horrific” in some areas of the southern Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli attack on Rafah in early May, noting that the situation in the north is improving.
“The displacement we have witnessed over the past 20 days from Rafah is a terrible and horrific experience at the same time for a very large number of people,” said Matthew Hollingsworth, Director of the World Food Program in the Palestinian Territories.
In the south, the bakeries of this United Nations agency closed their doors due to a lack of fuel, and from May 7, when the Israeli army began its attack on the city of Rafah, until the 20th of the month, “not a single World Food Program truck used the crossings to reach Rafah from Egypt,” according to Hollingworth says.
The World Food Program can no longer access its main warehouse in the south because it is located in an evacuated area.
“We lost this entire warehouse, including a stock of 2,700 tons of food that was looted or damaged due to the fighting,” Hollingsworth continued.
One million people fled the bombing in Rafah to the coastal area of Al-Mawasi between Rafah and Khan Yunis, which Israel classified as a “humanitarian area” to shelter the displaced.
According to Hollingworth, Palestinians lack water, food, fuel, health services, and the space necessary to dig latrines.
Horrible sounds
The UN official stressed that “the sounds and smells of daily life are terrible and horrific.” The World Food Program is currently feeding 27,000 people, “but this is not enough.”
In the central Gaza areas, the agency provides about 400,000 hot meals daily and runs 6 bakeries.
Hollingsworth stressed the need to create “a river of aid if we are to ensure that we do not see the most severe forms of hunger become more common,” calling for “the southern corridors to be fully opened.”
“What we basically need is an immediate ceasefire,” Hollingsworth added.
He concluded that they know “this may not happen immediately, so in the meantime, there must be better coordination between aid and commercial shipments that are delivered.”
In response to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements to the French station “LCI” that “calorie consumption in Gaza is 3,200 calories per person,” the UN official replied, “I have not seen anyone, even aid workers who live on protein bars, consuming 3,000 calories or more in Gaza.”