Israel claims food delivered to besieged north Gaza, but provides no details: Report
Israel has claimed that “thousands of food packages and sacks of flour” have been delivered to northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoon town, which has been under more than 60 days of siege by Israel’s military and where the UN warns famine is likely under way.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that controls the border crossings into Gaza, claimed the food aid was delivered to Beit Hanoon. But it did not say who delivered the aid, nor provide details on the exact amount of aid involved, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.
Alia Zaki, a spokesperson for the UN’s World Food Programme, told the AP that practically no food has entered northern Gaza for two months and that the agency’s daily requests to enter the area have been denied by Israel.
Of two UN missions that have been approved since October 6, Zaki said, only two trucks of aid were delivered to a shelter for forcibly displaced Palestinians that Israeli soldiers soon after ordered to be evacuated and then burned.
Thousands of food packages means little with 30,000+ people still trapped there.
Sound of powerful explosions heard in northern Gaza’s Jabalia: Report
Local media have reported that huge explosions have shaken the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Initial reports indicate the explosions have demolished buildings in the refugee camp, which has been under an Israeli military siege for more than two months.
Aid kitchen runs out of food in south Gaza, children scrape cooking pots for remnants
The Associated Press reports that many forcibly displaced Palestinians who gathered in large crowds at an aid kitchen in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis went hungry as the facility ran out of food.
After the kitchen was forced to shut down, crying children used their hands to scoop bits of rice left in large empty cooking pots. “The food ran out,” said Adel Mohammad, who was hoping to get a meal of rice – the only food being served – for his children. “At night they wake up hungry,” he said.
UN and relief agencies, including the World Food Programme, have warned for months that the humanitarian aid response in Gaza is “nearing collapse as famine looms” amid Israel’s continued restriction on the flow of food and other aid into the war-torn territory.
Concerns are growing even more intense with the onset of another winter in Gaza where 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes by Israeli attacks and military flee-or-die orders.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Friday that an estimated 945,000 displaced people in Gaza are at risk of exposure to cold weather and rain this winter.
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