The World Food Program was forced to halt aid deliveries after trucks were looted by hungry Gazans.
The World Food Program is once again at a standstill in the northern Gaza Strip. On Tuesday February 20, the UN agency announced that it had to once again suspend the distribution of aid in the face of “to chaos and violence” in this part of the Palestinian enclave. Food deliveries briefly resumed on Sunday, after a three-week shutdown linked, among other things, to a strike hitting a vehicle of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.
Around ten trucks were to bring food “for seven consecutive days” but violence in these areas ultimately forced the World Food Program (WFP) to put this project on hold. “The decision to suspend deliveries to the northern Gaza Strip was not taken lightly, as we know that this means that the situation there will deteriorate further, and more people will be at risk. to die of hunger”warned the humanitarian program. According to UNRWA, at least 300 000 people still in the north need help to survive.
Trucks taken by storm
The World Food Program, when it resumed its distributions in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, was quickly targeted. That day, one of his convoys heading towards Gaza City, near the Wadi Gaza crossing, “was surrounded by a crowd of hungry people”, the UN agency reported. His teams managed to push back “the multiple attempts to board our trucks”, but then faced gunfire in Gaza City. Nevertheless, “Our team was able to distribute a small amount of food along the way.”
But the next day, a second convoy heading north “was confronted with total chaos and violence, due to the breakdown of public order”. “The remaining flour was spontaneously distributed from trucks in Gaza City, in a context of high tension and explosive anger”the WFP said in a press release.
“Yes, the term looting is sometimes used. But it is looting out of desperation.”
Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokespersonat franceinfo
In the north of the Palestinian enclave, the UN agency has not been able to provide food aid since January 23. “People grab what they can take.”estimates the UN official.
War between Israel and Hamas: fear of famine in the Gaza Strip
War between Israel and Hamas: fear of famine in the Gaza Strip – (France 2)
At the same time, evacuation orders launched on Tuesday raise fears of new operations by the Israeli army in the north of the Gaza Strip. According to New York Times, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of two neighborhoods in Gaza City : Zaytoun and Turkoman. The residents still there must flee to the village of Al-Mawasi, near Khan Younes, in the south of the Palestinian territory.
A hungry population
In recent days, teams from the World Food Program “witnessed unprecedented despair.” Gaza, the agency warns, is in “a precipitous slide” towards malnutrition. “People are already dying from hunger-related causes.” The situation in the north is particularly “extreme” : according to the WFP, conditions of access to food are rapidly deteriorating and famine could spread in the region.
“A colleague told us that if a bag of flour opened when unloading a truck, residents came after distribution to try to collect a little flour. (…) The despair is total.”
Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokespersonat franceinfo
According to recent testimonies collected by the BBC, children may not eat for several days in the northern Gaza Strip and residents have no choice but to transform animal seeds into flour to feed themselves. Even these seeds are becoming unavailable, an aid worker in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Palestinian enclave, told the BBC. An already catastrophic situation, and which risks getting even worse without the arrival of massive humanitarian aid. Jason Lee, director of the Save The Children organization in the occupied Palestinian territories, recalls this : “Aid delivery continues to be hampered throughout the Gaza Strip, and particularly in the northern areas.” An observation confirmed by Jonathan Fowler : “The north is one of the most isolated regions, if not the most isolated region in the Gaza Strip” since the start of the conflict.
Drinking water is scarce
At the start of the year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted a marked increase in blockages of aid transported to the north of the Gaza Strip. Between October and December, the Israeli army refused access to only 14% of planned humanitarian missions. In January, more than half of these missions (56%) were blocked by the IDF, according to OCHA. Thus, between January 1 and February 15, 62 missions were blocked or postponed. Food aid is more accepted, unlike missions “aimed at supporting hospitals and facilities providing water, hygiene and sanitation services”, points out the United Nations agency.
However, the populations of the northern governorates almost no longer have access to drinking water. In Gaza City, for example, an average person has access to 0.6 liters of clean water per day, according to the report published by the WFP and UNICEF. Some 96% of families surveyed are in urgent need of water. People are forced to drink rainwater in the north of the Gaza Strip or collect seawater. In Jabalia, north of Gaza City, residents dig to reach the pipes, and hope get some water this way, reports the BBC.
“The water is dirty. Our children are sick and their teeth are damaged because of the dirty water. There is sand in it and it is very salty.”
A resident of the northern Gaza Stripat the BBC
Added to this is very limited access to care. In the northern half of the Gaza Strip, only five hospitals continue to partially operate, according to the UN. On Wednesday, the UK and Jordan airdropped four tonnes of aid for Tal al-Hawa hospital, including medicine, fuel and food. Against a backdrop of malnutrition and very limited access to drinking water and healthcare, diseases are spreading among the Gazan population. At least 90% of children under five have suffered from one or more infectious diseases and 70% have recently suffered from diarrhea, according to UN agencies.
Unprecedented destruction
After more than four months of fighting and intense Israeli strikes, the north of the Gaza Strip is devastated. The work of American researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek, who show the extent of the damage caused by the war, confirm that this part of the enclave is the most ravaged. In the northernmost governorate, between 69 and 82% of buildings were damaged or destroyed. Around Gaza City, 73 to 84 percent of buildings were affected. For researchers, this level of destruction is worse than in Aleppo (Syria) or Mariupol (Ukraine). Across the Gaza Strip, more than 60% of homes were damaged or destroyed, according to OCHA, which uses figures from the Hamas-led government in Gaza.
“I went to the north for a day, everything is methodically razed”, testifies Aurélie Godard, anesthetist and medical referent for Médecins sans frontières in Gaza, to franceinfo. The humanitarian visited the Palestinian territory between January 4 and February 10. “Water boreholes, factories, homes, schools… Everything that makes daily life possible has been destroyed in the north. There is nothing left.”