UN WFP says 560 tonnes of food entering Gaza daily but not yet reaching famine-hit north
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) -The U.N. said on Friday 560 tonnes of food had entered Gaza per day on average since a ceasefire took effect but convoys were struggling to reach famine-struck Gaza city due to war-damaged roads and continued closures of key northern aid routes.
With famine conditions in parts of Gaza, U.N. humanitarian affairs chief Tom Fletcher said on Wednesday thousands of aid vehicles would have to enter weekly to tackle a crisis marked by malnutrition, homelessness and a collapse of infrastructure.
“We’re still below what we need, but we’re getting there… The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of opportunity, and WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale up food assistance,” U.N. World Food Programme spokesperson Abeer Etefa told reporters in Geneva.
The WFP said it had not begun distributions in Gaza City, pointing to the continued closure of two border crossings, Zikim and Erez, with Israel in the north of the enclave where the humanitarian debacle is most acute.
“Access to Gaza City and northern Gaza is extremely challenging,” Etefa said, saying the movement of convoys of wheat flour and ready-to-eat food parcels from the south of the territory was being hampered by broken or blocked roads.
“It is very important to have these openings in the north, this is where the famine took hold. To turn the tide on this famine…, it is very important to get these openings.”
Though small amounts of nutrition products have reached the north – the area of heaviest and most devastating war between Israel and Hamas – relief convoys were still unable to move significant quantities of food there.
“We’ve had 57 trucks yesterday (into southern and central Gaza). We consider this a breakthrough, but we’re not yet at the level of around 80-100 trucks a day,” Etefa said.
Around 950 trucks passed into Gaza on Thursday via the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings with Israel, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, citing figures from COGAT, Israel’s military aid agency, given to mediators.
That followed around 715 trucks that rolled into Gaza on Wednesday, including 16 bearing fuel and gas, OCHA said.
UN Women, a U.N. agency that delivers programmes and promotes standards for women’s rights, said there was an “overwhelming need” in Gaza for food, medicine and protection particularly for women.
“The ceasefire may have stopped the fighting, but it has not ended the crisis. Over 1 million women and girls require food aid and nearly a quarter million need urgent nutritional support,” the agency’s Sofia Calltorp said.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Mark Heinrich)
