The United Nations World food Program (PMA) announced on April 25 that they have completely exhausted the food reserves they had for Gaza’s families:
“Today, the PMA delivered its last reservations to the social dining rooms of the Gaza Strip. These dining rooms are expected to be left without food in the next few days,” said the agency.
For weeks, these social canteens have been the only constant source of food aid for the population. Although they only reached half of Gaza’s residents and covered only 25% of their daily nutritional needs, they remained a vital resource, PMA said.
The 25 bakeries that received support from the WFP were forced to close on March 31 due to the exhaustion of wheat flour and cooking fuel. That same week, the distribution of PMA food packages also ended, each with provisions for two weeks per family.
The General Commissioner of the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini described as collective punishment the suffering that Israel inflicts to the more than 2.1 million people living in Gaza without food, clean water, medicines and other vital goods.
“The hunger caused by man is spreading and worsening deliberately,” said Lazzarini, who described the strip as “land of despair.”
Israeli authorities use humanitarian aid as “currency” and “weapon of war” to inflict a collective punishment to the Gazati, said UNRWA head.
While hunger is lady in the strip, the solution could be waiting on the border crossings where almost 3000 trucks loaded with food and other essential supplies await for the authorization of Israel.
-The Hamas group, on the other hand, denounced the use of hunger in Gaza as a genocide weapon, especially after the Netanyahu government blocked the access of humanitarian and commercial aid to the enclave since June 2.
“The Gaza Strip is entering a famine phase and (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his criminal government are using hunger as a genocide weapon,” said Hamas on Saturday in a statement.
The Palestinian group warned of the “disastrous repercussions” that for the Gazatí population has the total closure imposed by Israel, because “it prevents the entry of basic products for life, including food, water, medicines and combustible.”
To these limitations, the “deliberate attacks on water stations and food distribution centers”, which qualify as a violation of international law, affirms Hamas, which called the international community, especially to the Arab and Islamic countries, so that they take urgent measures that force Israel to authorize the entry of aid.
On March 2, the day in which the second phase of the high on the fire in Gaza should have begun but never negotiated, Israel blocked the access of all help to the strip, a measure that remains a month and a half later.
Food scarcity inside the Palestinian enclave has triggered the price of most basic products, such as flour, for which you have to pay about 400 shéqueles (95 euros) for just a package, according to EFE.
Data from the health authorities in Gaza report that more than fifty people have died due to hunger and malnutrition since Israel launched its offensive in October 2023, almost all children.
Last October, a food security evaluation carried out by specialized organizations estimated that 70% of the cultivation fields were destroyed and that the subsistence means had been decimated due to the Israeli military offensive, so the population that survived was at the expense of humanitarian aid.
