Last Tuesday, Salam, barely seven months old, died due to acute malnutrition. She is one of thousands of malnourished children in Gaza – and more cases are discovered every day, according to the UN's aid organization for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.
Starvation is spreading in the Gaza Strip, warns the WFP's deputy chief, Swede Carl Skau. He has just returned home from his fourth trip to the Gaza Strip since the start of the war. The situation is worse than anything he has seen before, he notes.
”It is difficult to find words to describe the level of desperation I have witnessed”, he says in a statement.
Caught in crossfire
The WFP's kitchens are empty. At most, they can serve hot water with a little pasta, says Skau.
”People are starving, while we have food standing just on the other side of the border.”
The organization's team often gets caught in crossfire when they escort food convoys through war zones, Skau explains. Fuel, spare parts, and basic communication equipment are starting to run out.
”Our local employees are not just aid workers – they live here, they face the same dangers and hunger as the rest of the population. We cannot continue under these conditions.”
3,000 times more expensive
According to the WFP, nearly every third Gazan now goes several days in a row without food.
In May, the UN-supported IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) estimated that 470,000 Gazans are at the highest risk level: 5, catastrophic risk of starvation. At the same time, Israel continues to severely restrict the import of aid. As a result, food prices in the Gaza Strip have risen to astronomical levels.
”Flour for bread is 3,000 times more expensive than before the war – 23 euros per kilo", writes the WFP in its latest assessment and continues:
”And fuel for cooking is simply impossible to get.”
