The United Nations World Food Program says that it has exhausted all of its food stocks in Gaza, where Israel has blocked humanitarian aid deliveries for seven weeks.
“Today, WFP has delivered its latest stocks of food for hot meal kitchens,” he warned. “These kitchens should lack food in the coming days.”
Israel cut the help on March 2 and resumed his offensive two weeks later after the collapse of a two-month-old ceasefire, saying that he was putting pressure on Hamas to release his remaining hostages.
The UN says that Israel is forced under international law to provide supplies for the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza. Israel says that he is in accordance with international law and that there is no shortage of aid.
At the end of March, the 25 bakeries supported by PAM in Gaza were forced to close after the wheat flour and the cooking fuel were exhausted. Food plots distributed to families containing two weeks of rations have also been exhausted.
Malnutrition also aggravates quickly, according to the UN. Last week, one of its humanitarian partners projected 1,300 children in northern Gaza and identified more than 80 cases of acute malnutrition – a double increase compared to previous weeks.
The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination (OCHA) says there are also serious shortages of drugs, medical supplies and equipment for hospitals overwhelmed by victims of Israeli bombing, and that fuel shortages hinder the production and distribution of water.
PAM said that current Israeli blockage – the longest closure that Gaza has ever faced – had exacerbated already fragile markets and food systems.
Food prices had soared up to 1,400% compared to the ceasefire, and the shortages of essential products raised serious nutritional concerns for vulnerable populations, including children under the age of five, pregnant women and breastfeeding and breastfeeding, and the elderly, she warned.
“The situation inside the Gaza Strip has again reached a break point: people are lacking in ways to cope, and the fragile gains made during the short ceasefire took place. Without urgent measures to open borders to obtain help and trade to enter, the critical aid of PAM can be forced to end,” said the agency.
“PAM urges all parties to prioritize the needs of civilians and to allow the aid to immediately penetrate Gaza and maintain their obligations under international humanitarian law.”
More than 116,000 tonnes of food aid – enough to feed a million people for up to four months – is positioned in the aid corridors and is ready to be delivered as soon as Israel reopens the borders of Gaza, according to the agency.
In the meantime, the director of the country of WFP, Antoine Renard, told the BBC that the agency tried everything it could to make the kitchens of hot meals work.
“More than 80% of the population … were moved during the war. And since March 18 (when the Israeli offensive has restarted), you have more than 400,000 people who were moved once again,” he said.
“Whenever you move, whenever you lose assets. These kitchens are so essential for people to have a basic meal.”
However, even when they are fully provided, kitchens have only reached half the population with only 25% of daily food needs.
Gavin Kelleher, responsible for humanitarian access to the Norwegian Refugee Council, told the BBC de Central Gaza that once the food actions of the kitchens were exhausted, they could no longer provide anything.
To survive, he said, people ate less, barter to “exchange a bag of layers for lenses or cooking oil”, or sell what remains to try to get money to access the remaining food supplies.
He added that begging also took place on a scale not seen before in Gaza, but that people were no longer able to give others.
“Despair is really very serious.”
Earlier this week, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected criticism of the UK, France and Germany’s blockade, which described it as “intolerable” and demanded it immediately ending in a joint declaration.
The ministry said that more than 25,000 trucks carrying nearly 450,000 tonnes of aid entered Gaza during the ceasefire, adding: “Israel was monitoring the situation on the ground, and there is no shortage of assistance to Gaza.”
He also said that Israel was not forced to allow help because Hamas had “diverted” supplies “to rebuild its terrorist machine”.
Hamas previously denied having stolen aid and the UN declared that it had kept “a very good police custody chain on all the help it was delivered”.
Last week, Hamas rejected an Israeli proposal for a new ceasefire, which included a request for disarmament in exchange for a six-week break in hostilities and the publication of 10 of the 59 hostages still in captivity. The group reiterated that it would give all the hostages in exchange for the end of the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal.
The Israeli army launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross -border attack on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 51,439 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas Ministry of Hamas in the territory.
