Food supplies into Gaza have diminished even further in the two months since international experts raised the threat of famine in the enclave, according to the regional director of the World Food Programme, which has been able to bring in only about half of the quantity required.
“We clearly don’t manage to bring enough food into Gaza,” Corinne Fleischer told the Financial Times after returning from the shattered territory, citing access problems including the closure of most crossings, long delays at Israeli checkpoints and looting by gangs inside Gaza.
Fleischer said the WFP needed to bring in 24,000 tons of food per month to feed 1.1mn people, or half Gaza’s population. UNRWA, the other main UN agency working in Gaza, is responsible for feeding the other half.