WFP has enough food in - or on its way to - the region to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for almost three months.
These new commitments to improve operating conditions come on top of earlier assurances from Israel to strengthen facilitation of humanitarian assistance. This includes allowing more trucks to enter Gaza with quicker clearances and approvals, use of alternative roads and routes inside Gaza, assurances of no armed forces or shootings near convoys, and the ability for humanitarian organizations to import and use the communications equipment needed to coordinate aid deliveries. Together, we hope these measures will allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays.
WFP teams delivered 350 truckloads of food aid into Gaza last week under extremely challenging circumstances that put civilians and aid workers at tremendous risk. This represents just over half the number of convoys WFP requested permission to send in.
Since the May 21st reopening of border crossings, WFP has delivered 22,000 tons of food aid into Gaza. More than 62,000 tons of food assistance is needed monthly to cover the entire 2.1 million population.
Food aid is the only real way for most people inside Gaza to eat. A third of the population is not eating for days. Some 470,000 people are enduring famine-like conditions. 90,000 women and children need urgent nutrition treatment. People are dying due to a lack of humanitarian assistance.
An agreed ceasefire is the only way for humanitarian assistance to reach the entire civilian population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly and safe manner -- wherever they are across the Gaza Strip.
