WFP says food supplies remain well below daily target of 2,000 tonnes, calls for Israel to open more crossing points.
The UN World Food Programme says that supplies to Gaza have ramped up after the US-brokered ceasefire, but are still far short of its daily target of 2,000 tonnes because only two crossings into the Palestinian territory are open.
Approximately 750 metric tonens of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily, according to the WFP, but this was still well below the scale of needs after two years of Israel’s devastating war that has reduced much of Gaza to ruins.
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“To be able to get to this scale-up, we have to use every border crossing point right now,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told a Geneva news briefing on Tuesday.
She said only two of the Israeli-controlled crossings into Gaza were operational – the Karem Abu Salem in the south and al-Karara in the centre (called Kerem Shalom and Kissufim in Israel, respectively).
Etefa said that sustaining the ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump was “vital; really it’s the only way we can save lives and push back on the famine in the north of Gaza.”
The US president’s 20-point plan for ending the war envisages “full aid” being sent into Gaza. An Israeli security official told Reuters that humanitarian aid continues to enter through the Karem Abu Salem crossing and additional crossings in accordance with the plan, without naming them.
The spokesperson said the UN agency now had 26 food distribution points open in Gaza – up from five on Friday, but still far short of the 145 it hopes to run throughout the territory. Most are in the south and centre of the Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would remain closed until further notice, with its reopening dependent on Hamas handing over the bodies of deceased captives.
Hamas on Tuesday said it would hand over the remains of two more Israeli captives. The Qassam Brigades said it “will hand over the bodies of two Israeli prisoners that were exhumed today in the Gaza Strip at 9pm Gaza time (18:00 GMT).”
The group has so far handed over 13 of the 28 captives’ bodies it had pledged to return under the deal.
Some nutrition supplies for children and pregnant women have reached northern Gaza via the south, Etefa said, but far short of the level required.
“We haven’t had large-scale convoys into Gaza City or to the north of Gaza,” she said, adding that the WFP had not been granted permission to use the main north-south Salah al-Din Street.
Food supplies delivered so far are enough to feed about half a million people for two weeks, she said. Many Palestinians in Gaza were storing the food they are receiving because they are afraid that supplies might again dry up.
“They eat part of it, and they ration and keep some of the supplies for an emergency, because they are not very confident how long the ceasefire will last and what will happen next,” she said.
