Israel's ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza has forced a leading aid agency to close its food outlets, facing empty warehouses and a lack of supplies in the conflict-torn region.
In recent weeks, World Central Kitchen has been serving 133,000 meals a day and baking 80,000 loaves of bread, but said it had been forced to suspend operations because there was little food left to cook in Gaza.
Food shortages are putting the lives of Gazans exhausted by 19 months of conflict at risk.
In April, the World Food Programme said its food supplies in Gaza had run dry due to Israel's blockade, depriving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their main source of food.
Malnutrition and hunger are becoming increasingly common in the Gaza Strip as the Israeli blockade enters its third month.
According to humanitarian organizations, shortages of food and basic goods have led to famine in the area, and supplies to treat and prevent malnutrition are depleted and running out fast.
Israel imposed a blockade on March 2 and then broke a two-month truce by resuming military operations in the area on March 18.
Both moves are said to be aimed at pressuring the Hamas militant group to release hostages still held by the extremists. Human rights groups have called the blockade a “starvation tactic” that threatens the entire population and could amount to a war crime.
Community kitchens like those run by World Central Kitchen provide daily meals to hundreds of thousands of people, but many are closing due to food shortages.
Those that are still functioning reveal chaotic scenes of men, women and children desperately fighting for meager rations. Bakeries are closed and water supplies have been cut off due to fuel shortages.
World Central Kitchen says it has served more than 130 million meals and baked 80 million loaves of bread since the conflict began. The organization also said Thursday that its mobile bakery had run out of flour.
“Our trucks loaded with food and supplies are waiting in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, ready to enter Gaza,” said Jose Andres, a celebrity chef and the organization’s founder. “But they cannot move without permission. Humanitarian aid must flow.”
Israel's defense body Cogat, which oversees aid to Gaza, said the blockade would continue unless the Israeli government changed its policy.
More than 10,000 children have been hospitalized or treated for acute malnutrition since the beginning of the year, according to the World Health Organization.
According to UNICEF, the rise in cases was particularly pronounced in March: 3,600 cases – 80% more than the 2,000 cases in February.
Almost half of the 200 food centres in the Gaza Strip have closed due to displacement and bombing.
World Central Kitchen previously suspended operations last April after Israeli strikes on its convoy killed seven aid workers. It resumed operations weeks later.
Also on Thursday, a series of Israeli airstrikes hit hilltops near the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh, killing at least one person and wounding eight, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said it had attacked infrastructure belonging to the militant group Hezbollah, including weapons depots and tunnel shafts as part of a large underground network. Israel says Hezbollah's actions at the site violated a November ceasefire.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that government offices in the area were closed after the attacks as families rushed to schools to take their children home.
After a US-brokered ceasefire agreement ended the conflict in November,
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
