WFP Chief: Gaza ‘On the Brink’ of Not Being Able to Recover from Famine
Aid for 1.1 million people waiting just beyond the border, waiting for Israel's OK
Desperation is deepening in Gaza, with the enclave tipping further into a famine from which its population might not be able to recover.
The civilian population of Gaza has been plunged into crisis since the Israeli military began its operations in the enclave following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
At least 75 percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have been displaced, and that displacement itself has led to immense challenges for the population and the humanitarian response in terms of shelter, food, sanitation, and health, according to the United Nations.
The entire population of Gaza is at dire levels of acute food insecurity, with hundreds of thousands facing crisis levels of hunger.
The Israeli government has been widely condemned for blocking the movement of humanitarian aid into Gaza, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said that two entry points would be opened in response to international outrage over the Israeli killing of several aid workers.
“Well, there are two entrances. There’s Erez, as well as the Ashdod port. And all of that is very important. We need to get food at scale up north,” said Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme. “But, with that said, we have to make sure that we continue to get not trucks just in up the fence road, but up the beach road, but also through the various entrances.
“We need more, though. This just isn’t enough. And, as you know, we’re literally on the brink of going over the edge, over the cliff with famine and not being able to recover from it,” added McCain, widow of the late senator, John McCain.
A significant amount of aid is just waiting over the border, according to McCain, who spoke Sunday in an on-camera appearance with CNN host Jake Tapper.
“Please remember this, though, and so our viewers understand, WFP stands ready. We have right now amassed, outside on the border, food for 1.1 million people for three months,” she said. “We just need to get it in. That’s why these crossings are so important, and more crossings are needed, as you know.”
Children are suffering in Gaza as aid has been held up, McCain said.
“Well, children are dying as we speak. And those that are not dying or haven’t died yet are so emaciated and lacking so much in the way of important nutrients at this particular time in their life cycles, they won’t — if they do live, they will never recover from it,” she said. “So it’s much more than just getting food in. It’s about the kind of foods that we get and making sure that we can get certainly foods for adults, but most importantly those for younger children, who really are in desperate need of nutrients right now.”
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