The UN’s food agency has warned that it will run out of supplies to help feed Palestinians in Gaza in just two weeks if Israel continues its total blockade of food and other necessities, putting the lives of millions of Palestinians at risk.
The World Food Programme has said that it only has enough supplies to keep its kitchens and bakeries in Gaza open for the next couple of weeks, after having distributed much of the food supplies it has been able to bring into Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement. The agency also warned on Wednesday that its fuel stocks are low and that it will run out of fuel in the coming weeks under the blockade.
This food is crucial for staving off starvation for the roughly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, who are dependent on food aid as prices for commercial goods have spiked due to Israel’s near-total blockade over the course of its genocide.
Since Sunday, Israel has closed off the border crossings into Gaza, cutting the region off from all humanitarian aid and supplies, including food, water, medicine and fuel.
The renewed blockade — which human rights groups have said is a crime against humanity and a clear violation of international law — is the most drastic action taken by Israel so far to put the ceasefire agreement in Gaza in jeopardy, amid a number of other violations.
Hamas has said that Israel is trying to sabotage the ceasefire agreement, as Israeli authorities are now trying to push a different ceasefire agreement than the one agreed upon earlier this year. Israel has continued to kill Palestinians despite the ceasefire, including killing two men with a drone in Rafah on Monday — a strike that sparked fears that Israel will resume its near-constant attacks on Gaza.
The blockade may already be putting lives in danger once again. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there was a slight improvement in nutrition for children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza in February, amid the first phase of the ceasefire. Israeli authorities had increased the amount of food and other supplies entering Gaza in that period, as mandated by the terms of the agreement.
However, since the ceasefire began in January, OCHA reported, over 3,000 children and 1,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women were diagnosed with acute malnutrition and required treatment. And OCHA has warned that the blockade may reverse any progress made in the first phase of the agreement.
Israel’s blockade has been condemned as a continuation of the genocide.
“Fully closing down Gaza AGAIN, while resuming hostilities, is much more than a violation of the ceasefire,” said Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories. “It is an escalation of Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians.”
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