UN warns of catastrophic hunger in Gaza

KABUL (Pajhwok): The United Nations has declared Gaza “the hungriest place on Earth”, with its entire population at risk of famine.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva Gaza was the only defined territory in the world where the entire population faced famine.

“The aid operation we have ready to deploy is being confined to an operational straitjacket,” Laerke said, “making it one of the most obstructed humanitarian efforts not only today, but in recent history.”

He noted since the reopening of the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and the war-torn enclave 10 days ago, nearly 900 aid trucks had been approved to enter from the Israeli side.

However, less than 600 of those trucks were actually offloaded in Gaza. An even smaller number were picked up and distributed due to “congested, insecure” routes assigned by Israeli authorities, along with “significant delays” in the approval process.

“The number of trucks coming in is just a trickle,” Laerke commented. “It is drip-feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger.”

He added many of the aid trucks were “swarmed by desperate people” en route. “It’s a survival reaction by people trying to feed their families,” he said, noting that the aid on those trucks had been funded by donors for the very people who were seizing it.

“I don’t blame them one second for taking aid that is essentially already theirs, even if it’s not being distributed the way we intended.”

On Wednesday, hungry crowds overran a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, where limited stocks of wheat flour had been pre-positioned for a few operational bakeries. The incident reportedly left two people dead.

In a statement, WFP reiterated its warnings about the dangers of restricting humanitarian assistance to people in desperate need.

sa/mud