WFP: Food aid currently reaching the Gaza Strip is not enough to prevent widespread starvation

GAZA, Aug. 29 (YPA) – World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain stated that food aid currently reaching the Gaza Strip remains far from enough to prevent widespread starvation.

McCain added: “Additional quantities of food  are entering, and we are heading in the right direction, but they are not enough to do what we must to ensure that the population does not suffer from malnutrition and starvation.”

McCain said the WFP is now able to deliver about 100 aid trucks per day into Gaza, but this figure still falls far short of the 600 trucks that were entering daily during the ceasefire.

McCain, who visited Deir al Balah and Khan Younis this week – including a clinic supporting children and pregnant and lactating women – highlighted ongoing difficulties in delivering aid to vulnerable populations deep inside Gaza.

“What we saw was utter devastation. It’s basically flattened, and we saw people who are very seriously hungry and malnourished,” McCain said.

“It proved my point that we need to be able to get deep into it (Gaza) so we can make sure that they can consistently have what they need,” she said.

She said that a modest improvement in getting commercial food and supplies into Gaza had helped prices fall, but said that most people still cannot afford food.

McCain said she is hopeful that the WFP will have better access to Gaza after meeting on Wednesday with the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, during which she pressed for unfettered access, safer routes and guarantees that trucks would not face long delays after clearance is granted.

McCain described the IPC report as the “gold standard” for measuring food insecurity and urged for a scale-up of aid into the enclave.

@E.Y.M