The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has decided to suspend food aid deliveries to the northern part of the Gaza Strip due to unsafe conditions, vowing to return when it is safe.
“The choice was difficult for WFP, according to a statement from the organisation, because it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger.
Poor Security Hinders Humanitarian Aid
“In order for the WFP to provide assistance, it is requesting that security be increased.
“It stated that because there was no operational humanitarian alert system and a truck belonging to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) had been attacked, delivery had already been halted.
“A WFP relief delivery that arrived in the northern Gaza Strip on February 18 was practically overrun by hordes of starving people.”
Jerrymusa.com reports that employees have stated that food and flour-filled trucks are being pilfered.
“There are also records of growing tensions, violence, and the incapacity to maintain law and order.”
Based on the most recent data, a report published on February 19 by UNICEF and WFP states that the situation is especially dire in the northern Gaza Strip.
They claim that acute malnutrition affects 15.6% of children under the age of two, or one in six of them.
It further stated that humanitarian aid is required for the 2.2 million residents in the Palestinian enclave.