Palestinians scrape spilled flour off ground as WFP halts food deliveries in Gaza citing ‘complete chaos’
World Food Programme has stopped deliveries into Northern Gaza citing Israeli gunfire and a ‘collapse of civil order’. This in turn has triggered a severe food and hunger crisis in Gaza. Visuals have emerged of the deplorable condition in Gaza, wherein Palestinians have resorted to scraping spilled flour off open roads and putting them in pockets to be consumed later.
The WFP's suspension of deliverables increases fears of starvation in northern Gaza, which has been almost completely cut off from aid since late October amid Israel’s devastating war on the enclave. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said the decision “has not been taken lightly" as it risks people dying of hunger. But it said that “the safety and security to deliver critical food aid – and for people receiving it must be ensured".
The agency said it had first suspended deliveries to the north three weeks ago after a strike hit an aid truck. It tried resuming deliveries this week but said convoys on Sunday and Monday faced gunfire and crowds of hungry people stripping goods and beating a driver. Notably, the WFP has previously warned of famine-like conditions affecting 2.3 million people in Gaza.
In its latest move WFP said its teams “witnessed unprecedented levels of desperation" in the north over the past two days. The suspension of aid to the north comes amid a sharp decline in the entry of aid trucks into the whole of Gaza. Figures by the UN office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) show the average number of aid trucks entering Gaza has fallen from 140 a day in January to 60 a day in February.
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