The United Nations on Tuesday warned that maintaining the fragile Gaza cease-fire is crucial to preventing famine and ensuring life-saving food aid reaches civilians, urging Israel to reopen all border crossings.
The U.S.-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas took effect Oct. 10, but tensions flared Sunday when Israeli forces launched deadly strikes in Gaza, citing alleged violations by Hamas.
“Sustaining the cease-fire is vital – really, it’s the only way we can save lives and push back on the famine in northern Gaza,” said Abeer Etefa, the World Food Program’s Middle East spokeswoman, speaking in Geneva.
Acknowledging the tenuous calm, she added, “We know it’s a fragile cease-fire; the most important thing is that it lasts.”
Etefa said that since the cease-fire came into force, 530 WFP trucks had crossed into Gaza, bringing in more than 6,700 tons of food – enough for close to half a million people for two weeks.
About 750 tons a day are now coming through, which, although more than before the cease-fire, remains well below the WFP’s target of around 2,000 tons daily.
“Convoys are pushing through, food is getting to the warehouses and distributions are happening in an organized and dignified manner,” she said.
‘Survival mode’
Etefa said the WFP now had 26 food distribution points open in Gaza – up from five on Friday, but still far short of the 145 it hopes to operate throughout the territory. Most are in the south and center of the Strip.
“The response has been really overwhelming,” Etefa said. “People are showing up in large numbers, grateful for the efficiency of food assistance as well as the dignified way of people standing in line, quickly getting the food rations.”
She said nine of the 30 bakeries the WFP hopes to supply were running, but they would require much larger quantities of wheat flour coming through the border.
“As we speak, half a million people are benefiting from the fresh bread,” Etefa said. “The good thing is that we’re getting to the most vulnerable,” notably women heads of households and the elderly.
She said Gazans were in “survival mode,” eating only some of the food received and saving the rest as they are “extremely worried” the cease-fire might collapse.
Etefa said WFP trucks were only coming through the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings but called for every entry point into the Palestinian territory to be opened, particularly those in the north, where the food situation “is extremely dire.”
“We don’t have an indication of when those border points will be open,” she added.
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