The head of UN’s emergency food relief agency on Sunday issued an
urgent appeal from the Rafah border crossing for safe, expanded
humanitarian access to Gaza as critical food supplies in the
ravaged enclave reach dangerously low levels.
“Right now, parents in Gaza do not know whether they can feed
their children today and whether they will even survive to see
tomorrow. The suffering just meters away is unfathomable standing
on this side of the border,” said Cindy McCain,
Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
“Today, I'm making an urgent plea for the millions of people
whose lives are being torn apart by this crisis,” she added.
Aid ‘nowhere near enough’
For the past few weeks, entry points into Gaza have been
virtually sealed except through the Rafah border crossing point.
While there has been a steady increase in aid entering Gaza, it
is nowhere near enough to meet the exponentially growing needs,
according to the UN agency.
The WFP head is concluding a two-day visit to Egypt, during which
she met with top Government officials, including President Abdel
Fattah El-Sisi, and visited the Egyptian Red Crescent’s
humanitarian staging hub in Al Arish.
“We appreciate all efforts to facilitate a steady flow of
humanitarian supplies through its border with Gaza, and the work
of the Egyptian Red Crescent is remarkable. We need to continue
to work together to get safe and sustained access to Gaza at a
scale that aligns with the catastrophic conditions facing
families there,” Ms. McCain said.
‘Not just a local tragedy’
Ms. McCain further highlighted that the crisis in Gaza is “not
just a local tragedy, it is a stark reminder that our global food
crisis is worsening”.
“Not only does this crisis threaten regional peace and stability,
it undermines our collective efforts to combat hunger worldwide,”
she said.
WFP is scaling up to reach more than one million people with
urgent food assistance in the next few weeks, and since 7
October, provided food and cash assistance to more than 650,000
people in Gaza and the West Bank.
It is also distributing fresh bread, date bars, and canned food
to families in UN shelters every day, and food parcels to
displaced families in host communities. It is also providing
cash-based transfers to people residing in communities so they
can buy the food available in shops that are still open.
