Gaza needs immediate ceasefire and massive scale-up in food assistance
Only a massive scale-up in food aid can stabilize the hunger catastrophe engulfing Gaza, the World Food Programme (WFP) has insisted.
People are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance. Severe acute malnutrition is surging and almost a third of families miss meals for days at a time. Without immediate care, many more lives will be at grave risk.
Humanitarian assistance is the only way for people to access any food as market prices have skyrocketed.
A huge humanitarian scale-up is also needed to calm anxieties and rebuild trust within communities that more food is coming.
On 20 July, desperate crowds surrounded a 25-truck WFP convoy carrying food across the Zikim border, destined for starving communities in northern Gaza. As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire.
Shootings near humanitarian missions, convoys and food distributions must stop immediately. Any violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable. WFP teams in convoys should not have to risk their own lives while trying to save others.
The only way forward now is a ceasefire. Humanitarians must be able to reach people with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly and safe manner – wherever they are across the Gaza Strip.
WFP is ready. We have the food, experienced teams on the ground and proven systems in place to respond at scale. We did it before and we can do it again.
We call on all parties and the international community to ensure the instant, safe delivery of life-saving food.