The World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that it has been forced to suspend distribution of food parcels across all of Gaza, and food distribution “in any form” in north Gaza, as Palestinians across the region starve due to Israel’s humanitarian aid blockade.
The group said on Wednesday that aid entry into Gaza has hit its lowest point in months and that food distribution has been halted this month. “If the flow of assistance does not resume, one million vulnerable people will be deprived of this lifeline,” the group said in a statement. Commercial goods are also in short supply.
Worse, in northern Gaza — where Israeli forces have been carrying out a horrific raid with the seeming goal of eliminating every Palestinian in the region — the group said that it cannot distribute any type of food, with kitchens forced to shut down. In May, WFP head Cindy McCain had already warned that there was a “full-blown famine” in the north, and Israel’s raid and blockade are now making a dire situation even worse.
“Virtually the entire area is under evacuation orders, and thousands of families have been forced to flee amid intense airstrikes and military operations on the ground. There is nowhere for these people to go, and hardly any way for WFP to reach them,” the statement said.
“With the main aid crossings into northern Gaza closed and WFP-partner kitchens forced to shut down, WFP is no longer able to distribute food in any form to families that desperately need it,” the group continued.
In central and southern Gaza, the food crisis is also dire and “at a breaking point,” according to WFP. Some kitchens are still able to provide meals, the group said, but bakeries in southern Gaza are at risk of being forced to shut down within a week if supplies don’t enter soon.
Since Israeli forces took over the Rafah border crossing this spring, they have steadily been worsening their aid blockade on Gaza. In September, the number of aid trucks entering the region hit the lowest monthly average of the genocide, with only 53 trucks granted entry by Israeli forces each day on average — down from 500 truckloads each day before the genocide, which was already insufficient to maintain the health of the population.
“With winter approaching, and having already endured one year of conflict, Gazans find themselves without adequate shelter, no fuel and very little aid. Families have resorted to selling any belongings they have, searching through the rubble for money or food,” WFP said.
According to the UN food agency, there is 100,000 tons of food, or enough to feed over a million people for five months, currently waiting outside of checkpoints to enter Gaza. But Israeli forces are barring them from entering, while other disruptions like Israel’s targeting of aid workers are severely hampering aid operations.
The total lack of food deliveries will worsen an already horrific food catastrophe created by Israel. In July, Israel’s starvation campaign had already created conditions of famine across the entire Gaza Strip, a group of UN experts said — and aid deliveries have only decreased since then.