UN agency: 2 million Gaza residents suffer from food insecurity due to Israeli war

ISTANBUL

Two million people in the Gaza Strip are suffering from food shortages amid a devastating Israeli attack on the enclave, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday.

The WFP expressed concern about the “shrinking space for aid agencies” in Gaza and said the Karam Abu Salem border crossing, also known as Kerem Shalom, was “inaccessible due to active conflict”.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has released a video showing large quantities of food parcels being packed at its warehouse in the Abu Rawash region of central Egypt for shipment to “needy families in the Gaza Strip.”

The WFP was the latest international organization to warn of famine in Gaza, as the flow of trucks carrying humanitarian aid has dropped significantly since Israel captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, a vital humanitarian route, on May 6.

Israel has ignored a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and is facing international criticism for its ongoing brutal offensive on Gaza since the attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

According to local health authorities, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, mostly women and children, and more than 87,400 others injured.

More than eight months after the start of the Israeli war, large parts of the Gaza Strip lie in ruins and are plagued by a crippling blockade of supplies of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide by the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Israel to immediately cease its military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before the May 6 invasion.

*Written by Ahmed Asmar

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