WFP delivers food inside Gaza amid restrictions and growing insecurity

Here are the latest updates on food insecurity and WFP operations in Gaza, including quotes from WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Carl Skau, who is currently in Palestine:

WFP Operations inside Gaza

•    Since 21 May, when border crossings re-opened to limited amounts of aid, WFP teams have been able to dispatch dozens of aid convoys with more than 1,200 trucks carrying 18,247 metric tons (MT) of food aid inside Gaza. Despite these efforts, the food delivered to date is still a tiny fraction of what a population of over two million people need to survive.
•    The breakdown of the food aid brought into Gaza includes (as of 03 July):
o    12,275 MT of wheat flour for bread
o    5,828 MT of ready to eat rations
o    113 MT of emergency nutritional supplies
o    30 MT of yeast for baking
•    While most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza have been intercepted by hungry civilian communities, WFP has been able to conduct some direct distributions. These include:
o    Food aid distributed directly to 24,649 people (5,357 households).
o    Nutrition prevention assistance to 102,544 children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women across 92 active distribution sites.
o    Nutritional supplements to 11,125 people.
o   In addition, 250,000 meals were also provided in June through 72 community kitchens by food security partners. 
•    Israeli authorities have provided written assurances that operating conditions inside Gaza will improve, and that more trucks will be able to carry food aid into Gaza.
•    The assurances also include the use of more routes and border crossing points with faster clearances, dependable communications, and without armed forces near convoys. 
•    In agreement with Israeli authorities, WFP’s target is to bring 2,000 MT of food aid into Gaza every day (1,000 MT to the north, 1,000 MT to the south).
•    WFP stands ready to scale up food assistance into Gaza if a ceasefire comes into effect. We have experienced teams on the ground, and proven systems in place to respond at scale.
•    During the recent ceasefire, WFP facilitated nearly 40 percent of all humanitarian aid that entered Gaza, including 8,000 trucks of food, which helped push back the tide of hunger. The agency stands ready to do this again.
•    WFP has over 140,000 metric tons of food in or on its way to the region - enough to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for two months.

Food Needs Inside Gaza
•    Inside Gaza, the fear of starvation and desperate need for food remains high.
•    A recent WFP assessment found nearly one person in three is not eating for days at a time.
•    Findings from the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, show a high risk that famine will occur as conflict persists and humanitarian agencies are unable to provide essential aid. 
•    Some 470,000 people are expected to face Catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) between May and September of this year.
•    Malnutrition is surging and some 90,000 children and women urgently need treatment.
•    Food aid is the only real way for people to eat:
o    Flour for bread is 3,000 times more expensive than before the war – 23 euros per kilo of flour. And cooking fuel is simply nowhere to be found.

Requirements to Scale Operations
•    WFP stands ready to scale up and deliver life-saving assistance directly to the most vulnerable families in need. For this, WFP urgently calls for:
•    At least 100 aid trucks per day to be allowed through northern, central and southern border points.
•    Faster loading and dispatching of trucks from crossing points into Gaza. 
•    No armed presence near convoy routes or civilian aid distribution points.
•    Uninterrupted connectivity to allow humanitarian organizations to coordinate effectively.
•    A sustained ceasefire that creates the necessary conditions for safe, scaled, and impactful humanitarian aid.
 

Note to editor

WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Carl Skau, visited Gaza City on 1-2 July, talking to families there and assessing the humanitarian situation. The following quotes may be attributed to him:
•    “This is my fourth visit to Gaza since the start of the conflict. The situation is the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to find words to describe the level of desperation I have witnessed. People are dying just trying to get food. Our kitchens are empty; they are now serving hot water with a bit of pasta floating in it. A mother told me she had gone to a kitchen hoping to find a hot meal and fainted there. There was nothing to eat and she went home without anything for her children. A father I met had lost 25 kgs in the past two months. People are starving, while we have food just across the border.”

•    “Our WFP teams in Gaza are doing heroic work under conditions that are simply impossible. They are frequently caught in cross-fire, they are stuck in steaming hot cars for 24 hours straight, escorting food convoys through combat zones. We don’t have enough fuel for our vehicles, or spare parts for our trucks or cars, or basic equipment to communicate. And our national staff are not just aid workers—they live here, they face the same dangers, the same hunger as the rest of the population. We can’t continue in these conditions.”

•    “A ceasefire is urgently needed. We stand ready to deliver - we have the food, the capacity and the systems to assist the entire population in Gaza. During the previous ceasefire, we showed what was possible: delivering over 8,000 trucks of food in only 42 days. We can do it again, but we need all routes and entry points to open, and we need safety and order to be able to reach most vulnerable. The ceasefire must also be the first step toward lasting peace.”

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

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