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According to the UN, nine out of ten families have problems with food
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- Author, Fiona Nimoni
- Scroll, BBC News
December 9, 2023
Carl Skau, deputy director of the U.N. World Food Program, said only a fraction of needed supplies had reached the Gaza Strip. According to him, 9 out of 10 people in the area cannot eat every day.
Conditions in Gaza made food deliveries “almost impossible,” Skau said. “People are desperate for food.”
On the other hand, Israel claims it must continue airstrikes on Gaza to “eliminate Hamas and bring the Israeli hostages home.”
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told the BBC that “every death and pain of a civilian is painful, but we have no alternative.”
“We are doing everything we can to get as much as possible into the Gaza Strip,” Hecht said.
Movement in and out of Gaza has been strictly prohibited since October 7, when Hamas members breached Israel's heavily guarded external border. According to the Israeli government, 1,200 people died in the action.
In response, Israel closed its borders with Gaza and began airstrikes on the area. It also restricted aid deliveries that Gaza's civilians rely on to survive.
According to the Hamascontrolled Health Ministry, Israel has killed more than 17,700 people in the Gaza Strip in its retaliatory campaign, including more than 7,000 children.
Only the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt is open, allowing limited amounts of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
This week Israel agreed to open Gaza's Kerem Shalom border crossing in the coming days but only to inspect trucks carrying humanitarian aid.
The trucks would then first drive to Rafah to reach Gaza.
Carl Skau of the United Nations said he was “unprepared for the fear, chaos and desperation” he and his aid team faced during their trip to Gaza this week.
According to him, “there was chaos in warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate and hungry people, supermarkets with empty shelves and overcrowded shelters with full toilets.”
International pressure led to a temporary sevenday ceasefire in November that allowed some supplies to enter Gaza. However, the UN Food Program insists that “a second border crossing is now required to meet demand”.
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Israel says the military action aims to eliminate Hamas in Gaza
In some areas, nine out of ten families “go without food all day,” says Skau.
Residents of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, a town now surrounded by Israeli tanks on two fronts, say: “The situation is terrible.”
Dr. Ahmed Moghrabi, head of the plastic surgery and burns department at the city's only remaining health center, Nasser Hospital, could not hold back his tears as he spoke to the BBC about the food shortage.
“I have a threeyearold daughter, she always asks me for a candy, an apple, a fruit. I can't provide it. I feel helpless,” he said.
“There is not enough food, only rice, can you believe it? We only eat once a day.”
Khan Younis has been the subject of heavy airstrikes in recent days and hospital chief Nasser says his team has “lost control” of the number of dead and injured arriving at the facility.
The Israeli government claims that Hamas leaders are hiding in Khan Younis, possibly in an underground network of tunnels, and that they are fighting to destroy the group's military capabilities.
On Saturday, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas accused the United States of being “accomplices in war crimes.”
Joe Biden's administration vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Of the 15 members of the Security Council, 13 countries voted for the resolution. The UK abstained and the US was the only country to vote against the resolution.
Abbas said he held Washington responsible for “the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and the elderly in Gaza by Israeli occupation forces.”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood defended the veto, saying the resolution called for an “unsustainable ceasefire that would give Hamas the opportunity to repeat what it did on October 7.”
A temporary sevenday ceasefire ended just over a week ago. During the ceasefire, 78 hostages were released by Hamas in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
About 100 people were arrested by Hamas in Gaza.
The death of 25yearold Israeli Sahar Baruch was confirmed on Saturday, according to a statement from the kibbutz where he lived.
The death was confirmed after Hamas' armed wing released a video on Friday showing the violent aftermath of a failed operation by Israeli forces to free a hostage.