The UN estimates that 560 tons of food have entered Gaza since the ceasefire, “below what is needed”
The World Food Program (WFP), dependent on the UN, stated this Friday that since the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas came into effect, 560 tons of food have entered Gaza daily. An amount much higher than what was coming in before the agreement, but still insufficient for the needs of the population of the Palestinian enclave.
With famine declared in and around Gaza City, and starvation across the Strip, UN Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher said on Wednesday that thousands of aid trucks are needed to alleviate the food crisis. “We are still below what is needed, but we are getting there. The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of opportunity and the WFP is acting quickly and agilely to increase assistance,” the organization’s spokesperson, Abeer Etefa, said this Friday from its headquarters in Geneva.
The spokesperson has specified that the arrival of food is especially complicated in the north of the enclave, where the capital, Gaza City, is located and where the majority of the population is concentrated. The WFP has not yet been able to begin food distribution in the city, pointing out that the Zikim and Erez border crossings, which connect the north of the Strip with Israel, are still closed.
“Access to Gaza City and the northern Strip is extremely complicated,” said Etefa. He explained that convoys with wheat flour and ready-to-eat food packages are having difficulties moving from the south to the north of the enclave due to the number of roads destroyed or blocked by debris. “Yesterday [por el jueves] We were able to put (in central and southern Gaza) 57 trucks. We consider it a milestone, but we are not yet at the level of 80-100 trucks a day,” said Etefa.
