ROME/GENEVA/NEW YORK – As the risk of famine increases and more people face outbreaks of deadly diseases, a fundamental change in the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza is urgently needed, several United Nations agencies warned today.
For the Directors of the World Food Program (WFP): UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), the delivery of sufficient quantities of aid to Gaza and its distribution within the country currently depends on various factors, such as the opening of new entry routes and the approval of daily transit for a larger number of trucks across the border, easing controls restrictions on the movement of aid workers and security guarantees for both people receiving aid and those distributing it.
Given the inability to produce and import food, the people of Gaza rely on humanitarian aid to survive, although this aid alone cannot meet the basic needs of the entire population. To date, the United Nations, international aid agencies and non-governmental organizations have been able to provide limited humanitarian assistance despite extremely difficult conditions. However, aid is far from enough to prevent the deadly combination of hunger, malnutrition and disease. The lack of food, clean water and medical care is particularly severe in the north of the country.
Humanitarian efforts are severely limited by the closure of all but two southern border crossings and complex inspection checks on trucks entering the Gaza Strip. Once in the country, bombings and constant changes on the front lines hamper efforts to establish access points and care for people in need, affecting the lives of residents and humanitarian workers from the United Nations and other organizations working to provide aid to the population strive, endangered.
“Just a few kilometers from the arriving food trucks, Gazans are at risk of starvation,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. “Every hour lost puts countless lives at risk. We can only prevent famine if we can deliver enough supplies and safely reach everyone in need, wherever they are.”.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report found that food insecurity in Gaza is extremely serious and confirmed that the country's entire population (approximately 2.2 million people) is in crisis or acute food insecurity is faced on a catastrophic scale. Virtually all Palestinians in Gaza are forced to skip meals every day, and many adults go hungry so that their sons and daughters can eat. The report warns that famine will occur if current conditions continue.
WFP has been providing food to the people of Gaza every day since October 7 and has already reached more than 900,000 people with food assistance as of December. To achieve all of this, the company had to find new ways of collaborating with local partners, such as finding safe locations for distribution, delivering flour to bakeries so they could resume production, or distributing special nutritional supplements To help children combat malnutrition. Last Thursday, the first WFP food convoy since the humanitarian ceasefire managed to reach northern Gaza, with provisions for around 8,000 people.
The conflict has also damaged or destroyed key water, sanitation and health infrastructure and services and limited capacity to address acute malnutrition and infectious disease outbreaks.. Given that there are about 335,000 vulnerable children under five living in Gaza, UNICEF predicts that cases of wasting – the deadliest form of malnutrition – could rise by almost 30% in the coming weeks compared to pre-crisis levels, from 10,000 Boys and girls could be affected.
“Children who are most at risk of dying from malnutrition and other diseases urgently need medical care, clean water and sanitation, but conditions on the ground do not allow us to safely reach children and the most vulnerable families,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Some of the material we urgently need to repair and increase water supplies is still not allowed to enter the Gaza Strip. The lives of children and their families are at stake. “Every minute counts,” he warned.
UNICEF has been warning since last November that children in southern Gaza only have access to 1.5 to 2 liters of water per day, well below the recommended survival requirements. To address this situation, the organization and its partners have provided clean water to more than 1.3 million people, but much more is needed to address these dire conditions. UNICEF has also provided medical supplies, including 600,000 doses of vaccines, nutritional supplements and vitamins, to children and pregnant women, and provided cash support to more than 500,000 households.
Since the start of hostilities, WHO and its partners have supported the health system in the Gaza Strip through the provision of medical equipment and supplies, medicines and fuel, coordination of emergency medical teams and disease surveillance. In addition, they have carried out more than a dozen high-risk missions to deliver supplies to hospitals in the north and south of the country. The organization and its allies also helped set up two kitchens at Al-Shifa Hospital, which now serves 1,200 meals per day; delivered medical supplies to support the treatment of 1,250 children with severe acute malnutrition and worked to establish several therapeutic nutrition centers.
“The people of Gaza are suffering from a lack of food, water, medicine and adequate healthcare. “Famine will make an already dire situation even more catastrophic, as sick people are more likely to starve and hungry people are more vulnerable to disease,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros. Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We need safe, unhindered access to the delivery of aid and a humanitarian ceasefire to prevent further death and suffering.”
Humanitarian organizations urgently need Israel's permission to use an operational port near the Gaza Strip and border crossings in the north. Access to the port of Ashdod, about 40 kilometers north of Gaza, would make it possible to deliver and transport significantly larger quantities of aid directly by truck to the most affected areas in the north of the Gaza Strip, where only a few convoys have arrived so far.
“The current flow of aid is minuscule compared to the enormous humanitarian needs,” said Phillippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).. “Humanitarian aid will not be enough to counteract the worsening hunger among the population. “Commercial deliveries are essential to allow markets and private businesses to reopen and to offer an alternative in terms of food accessibility.”.
The heads of the three agencies stressed the urgent need to lift barriers and restrictions on the shipment and distribution of aid in Gaza and to resume trade. They also reiterated their call for a humanitarian ceasefire that would allow the implementation of a massive, vital humanitarian operation involving multiple organizations.
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