The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that the food distribution centres and community kitchens it supports in Gaza are increasingly being disrupted by Israeli evacuation orders, as desperate Palestinians are squeezed into an “ever-shrinking space.”
In recent days, Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza, the most since the beginning of the war, which broke out in October, prompting an outcry from the UN and relief officials over the reduction of humanitarian zones and the absence of safe areas.
Israel issued new evacuation orders for Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, August 25, 2024, evening, forcing more families to flee.
In a press release, the WFP stated that its operations are severely hampered by intensifying conflict, the limited number of border crossings and damaged roads.
“In the last two months, amid continuing catastrophic hunger, WFP has had to reduce the contents of food parcels in Gaza as inflows of aid dipped and supplies dwindled,” it said.
“With two, or occasionally three, border crossings open, roughly half of the required food assistance entered Gaza in July,” it noted, adding that August is set to end with a similar result.
The war has destroyed most of Gaza’s capacity to produce its own food and damaged much of its infrastructure.
WFP also warned about the state of the war-scarred roads it uses to transport food assistance around Gaza.
It pointed out that shell craters and debris make driving slow and challenging for truck drivers even in dry weather.
“In two months, when rain and flooding is expected, most roads will become unusable,” it stressed.
The WFP Palestine Country Director, Antoine Renard, said that the agency won’t be able to bring food to Palestinians in Gaza unless “urgent repairs” are done on these roads, which are critical for the safe transportation of food, water, medicine and hygiene equipment.
Amid confusion over the latest evacuation orders in central Gaza, patients and displaced Palestinians are fleeing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the last functioning medical facility in the area.
The military has not ordered the evacuation of the hospital, located in central Gaza, but patients and people sheltering there fear that it may be engulfed in fighting or become the target of an Israeli raid.
Gaza’s health ministry called for the 100 patients inside the hospital, and the medical teams who had remained to care for them, to be protected.
A Never-ending Tragedy
Similarly, The UN’s Palestine relief agency, UNRWA, described life for Palestinians amid Israel’s war in Gaza as a “never-ending tragedy.”
“This is a complete stripping of humanity,” UNRWA wrote in a post on X.
“Families across the Gaza Strip continue to be forced to flee, forced to leave their homes and belongings behind. All they can now do is try to stay alive,” the UNRWA added as it reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire.
UNRWA also reported that only three out of 18 water wells in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah are functioning, resulting in an 85 percent water shortfall.
“Not only are people in Gaza in constant fear for their lives, but they struggle to meet even their most basic needs,” the organisation said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement that the death toll in Gaza has reached 40,435.
It added that 93,534 people have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, 2024.
The ministry said that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.
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