Gaza city: The United Nations announced on Tuesday that it has successfully distributed food parcels to one million people in Gaza since the recent ceasefire, while cautioning that there is still an urgent need to save lives in the region.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) emphasized the necessity for all crossing points into the Gaza Strip to be opened to facilitate the delivery of aid to the famine-stricken Palestinian territory. The organization noted that no explanation was provided for why the northern crossings with Israel remain closed.
“Three and a half weeks into the ceasefire in Gaza, we have distributed food parcels to around one million people across the Gaza Strip,” stated Abeer Etefa, WFP’s Middle East spokeswoman. Speaking from Cairo, she stressed that this effort is part of a broader initiative to combat hunger in Gaza.
The WFP plans to reach 1.6 million people in the region with these parcels, which are designed to provide enough food for a family for ten days. However, Etefa highlighted the need for increased access, more open border crossings, and better access to key roads inside Gaza to meet operational goals.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, brokered by the US, took effect on October 10. During a briefing in Geneva, Etefa detailed how the WFP is expanding its operations in Gaza, having opened 44 of the 145 food distribution points it aims to establish.
Currently, an estimated 700,000 people are receiving fresh bread daily from 17 WFP-supported bakeries, with nine located in south and central Gaza and eight in the north. The agency aims to have 25 bakeries operational soon.
Etefa reported that although food consumption levels have slightly improved due to humanitarian aid and commercial trucks being allowed entry, they remain significantly below pre-conflict levels. Households are primarily consuming cereals and pulses, while meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruits are “extremely rare” in their diets.
Nour Hammad, WFP’s spokeswoman in Gaza, pointed out that commercial food prices are still prohibitively high for most families, with the cost of an apple equivalent to what a kilogram of apples cost before the conflict erupted in October 2023.
The WFP disclosed it has only managed to bring in approximately half of the food required to meet the needs of Gaza’s population. “The needs are overwhelming,” Etefa stated, underlining the urgency of the situation by adding, “We are in a race to save lives.”
Etefa highlighted the logistical challenges faced by the WFP, noting that trucks are only entering through the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings. This restriction significantly limits the volume of aid entering Gaza and hampers efforts to deliver aid to the north of the region. “We actually haven’t been given clear answers on why the northern crossing points are still closed,” she remarked.