UNITED NATIONS - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Saturday warned that escalating Israeli attacks in northern Gaza is having a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families, noting that the main crossings into the north have been closed and no food aid has entered since Oct. 1. Food distribution points, as well as kitchens and bakeries in North Gaza, have been forced to shut down due to airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders. The only functioning bakery in North Gaza, supported by Rome-based WFP, caught fire after being hit by an explosive munition.
“The north is basically cut off and we’re not able to operate there,” Antoine Renard, WFP Country Director for Palestine, said.
“WFP has been on the ground since the onset of the crisis. We are committed to delivering life-saving food every day despite the mounting challenges, but without safe and sustained access, it is virtually impossible to reach the people in need.”
At UN Headquarters in New York, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said the situation in the south is also “at breaking point”. No food distributions are taking place, while bakeries are struggling to secure wheat flour, putting them at risk of shutting down any day.
“Aid entering Gaza is at its lowest level in months. No one has received food parcels in this month due to constrained access of aid supplies,” he said. WFP said it’s last remaining food supplies in the north -- including canned food, wheat flour, high-energy biscuits, and nutrition supplements -- have been distributed to shelters, health facilities and kitchens in Gaza City and three shelters in North Gaza. If the conflict continues to escalate at the current scale, it is unclear how long these limited food supplies will last and the consequences for fleeing families will be dire.
The rapid deterioration in the north comes as aid entering Gaza overall is at its lowest level in months, and commercial goods are barely trickling in. WFP said it has been able to bring in only four percent of the food needed to sustain a million people in Gaza this month.
As a result, no one in Gaza this month has received the more substantial WFP food parcels typically distributed. These parcels – containing pasta, rice, oil and canned meat – are a lifeline for many families.
“If we cannot get more aid into and across Gaza, we won’t be able to deliver food parcels to more than a million Palestinians in Gaza,” said WFP’s Renard.
“People have run out of ways to cope, food systems have collapsed, and the risk of famine is real.”
As winter approaches, Gazans find themselves without adequate shelter, no fuel and very little aid, and WFP said it urgently needs safe and sustained access to deliver life-saving food assistance. This requires more crossing points open to move food into Gaza, and security for our staff and partners who are working tirelessly to safely deliver food to those urgently in need.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said sudden displacement orders in the north are once again affecting tens of thousands of vulnerable boys and girls. OCHA warned that most displacement is now occurring in the north, where no tents are available to support families that have been newly uprooted.
The latest developments in North Gaza governorate have forced the suspension of protection services, the closure of malnutrition treatment services, and the shutting down of five temporary learning spaces, affecting hundreds of children, while the Kamal Adwan Hospital is seeing an influx of trauma injuries.
UN humanitarian offiials have continued to warn that the situation for civilians is getting worse as the Israeli military renews its push into the north, where some 400,000 people face evacuation orders.
“Over the last week, the Israeli military has intensified operations in north Gaza, further severing the area from the rest of the Gaza Strip and risking afresh the lives of civilians in the areas,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, OHCHR.
“Intense strikes, shelling, quadcopter shootings and ground incursions have occurred over the past days, hitting residential buildings and groups of people, causing numerous casualties and once again, mass displacement of Palestinians in the area.”
As UN aid agencies and partners prepare to roll out the second phase of the mass polio vaccination campaign next week, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, underscored the impact of a chronic lack of humanitarian access to the enclave and, in particular, the north.
“Many of the hospitals in the north are running out of fuel. Most of the UN and humanitarian missions are not happening to the north. They’re running out of a a few specific medical supplies and we are one year in this crisis,” Dr Peeperkorn said, as he confirmed that three relief missions north of Wadi Gaza had not made it this week. “So, we request again…that these humanitarian missions to the north, wherever, to the south, they need to happen.”