Supplies of food in southern Gaza at risk, WFP official says
While hunger and the risk of famine have been present in northern Gaza for months, the situation is deteriorating in the south due to Israel expanding its military operations and an emerging public health crisis, says Carl Skau, deputy director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).
“We had stocked up before the operation in Rafah so that we had put food into the hands of people, but that’s beginning to run out, and we don’t have the same access that we need, that we used to have,” Skau said after a two-day trip to Gaza, Reuters news agency reported.
“It’s a displacement crisis that brings a protection catastrophe really, that a million or so people who have been pushed out of Rafah are now really crammed into a small space along the beach,” he added.
“It’s hot. The sanitation situation is just terrible. We were driving through rivers of sewage. And it’s a public health crisis in the making.” Skau said that while more food is now reaching northern Gaza, basic healthcare, water and sanitation are still needed to “turn the curve in the north on famine completely”.
Safety concerns, checkpoints hindering needed aid deliveries: WFP official
Speaking to Al Jazeera, the WFP’s chief operating officer, Carl Skau, says he had just returned from a trip across the Gaza Strip. He recounts “massive destruction” and a “sense of tiredness or exhaustion”.
“Frankly, people just want this to end. They are at the end of their rope, and and they’ve had enough,” he said. Safety remains a “serious concern” for aid workers, he said, adding that two rockets have hit WFP routes in recent weeks.
“Our colleagues spend many hours a day waiting at checkpoints,” he added. “It takes time for clearances, and we’re also struggling with looting in parts of Gaza. “So it is a very, very difficult operating environment.”
WFP releases video from Gaza mission
The video shows World Food Programme official Carl Skau’s visit to the enclave, and details the shortage of food, medical supplies and clean water. “We find nothing to eat,” Um Mohammed, a Palestinian resident of Gaza, tells Skau in the video. “We find no bed to sleep in.”
The WFP has said increased fighting has hindered aid delivery, with its warehouses hit twice by attacks in June.
#Gaza: @WFP operations are being severely impacted by the escalation of fighting in the south and centre of Gaza
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