WFP warns of 1m ‘trapped’ in southern Gaza without clean water, sanitation as fighting escalates
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), said a “public health and protection disaster” is unfolding in southern Gaza where one million displaced people are trapped amid a “shocking” level of “destruction”.
Reporting after the completion of a two-day mission to Gaza, Skau said the challenges faced by humanitarian workers are “like nothing I have ever seen” amid escalating fighting in the south and centre of Gaza, which is taking a devastating toll on the civilian population.
“From the south to the northernmost tip of the Strip, people are traumatised and exhausted,” he said in a post on social media.
“People want a ceasefire, and they want dignity back,” Skau said in a video interview.
1 million displaced ppl in south #Gaza are trapped, without clean water or sanitation. It's a public health and protection disaster.
In the north, @WFP's deliveries via Erez have improved access to basic food. This must be sustained, and people need more diverse nutritious food. pic.twitter.com/wCJe4oyH1f
— Carl Skau (@CarlSkau) June 14, 2024
WFP says struggling to distribute food within Gaza
WFP’s Carl Skau says the main challenge for the team is not getting food to the borders but distributing it inside Gaza.
“Our main concern at the moment is in the south. Since the operation in Rafah, we’ve had to move our offices and our warehouses to Deir el-Balah further north and we are now struggling to assist hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced from Rafah,” he said.
“Food, basic food commodities are available but we’re extremely concerned about the protection crisis and water and sanitation crisis. There is deep concern about the trajectory of the situation in the south.”
‘Significant number’ of Gaza population will starve to death without aid: Medic
Dr Thaer Ahmad, who had volunteered at the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in January, said even then that malnutrition in Gaza was expected to rise, and the World Food Programme had warned as early as November that malnutrition was increasing and emergency aid needed to enter Gaza.
“When we were there in January, we saw just how difficult it was for aid trucks to get into the Gaza Strip and get to vulnerable populations. So this is something that many NGOs, many health professionals have been warning about,” Dr Ahmad told Al Jazeera, speaking from Washington, DC.
“You cannot just continue to allow the crisis of humanitarian aid delivery … and not expect that there are going to be consequences on the population,” Ahmad said.
“There is going to be a portion of the population that is going to die because of the lack of food. Specifically, what you see is that people – who are malnourished, who are dealing with dehydration – if they have a common cold or if they have some sort of stomach virus, they will die as a result of this because of the conditions on the ground,” he said.
“People starving to death. That’s what we are talking about, and we are talking about a significant number of the population,” he added.“The solution is very clear and it is very simple. Get aid in. Get food in. Get water in. And that’s just not happening right now.”
Children in Gaza suffering from disease due to malnutrition
Clinical nutritionist Rana Zuaiter says children in Gaza are thirsty as the water is contaminated. She told Al Jazeera there is no food security or humanitarian aid in the besieged enclave. As a result, 90 percent of children suffer from diarrhoea, hepatitis and other diseases.
Zuaiter added that a lack of diet diversity and food insecurity are some factors driving this increase in malnutrition cases. “One in three children is suffering from starvation. It’s a huge number of man-made starvation, which Israel uses as a weapon of war,” she said.
She urged the world to stop the air strikes and to allow food aid distribution within Gaza to prevent starvation.
