The World Food Program under the UN, WFP, suspended deliveries on February 20 due to the uncertainty of the security situation. However, we are trying to continue deliveries.
The UN’s World Food Program WFP says that its attempt to restart emergency aid deliveries to the northern parts of the Gaza Strip has largely failed.
WFP temporarily suspended deliveries on February 20 due to the precarious security situation in Gaza, when the organization’s transports were attacked by hordes of hungry people.
WFP says in its announcement that the organization sent a convoy of fourteen aid trucks towards the northern parts of Gaza on Tuesday, but the Israeli army turned the convoy away from the Wadi Gaza checkpoint after three hours of waiting.
Aid trucks were diverted to a detour. Later, a large group of desperate and hungry people stopped the convoy and stole about 200 tons of food from the trucks, WFP says.
– Even though today’s convoy did not reach the northern parts of Gaza to distribute aid to starving people, WFP is looking into ways to continue the transports, says WFP’s deputy director Carl Skau.
Last week, a senior UN emergency aid official told the UN Security Council that 576,000 people are one step away from starvation. This means almost a quarter of the people of Gaza.
Last week, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said nearly 120 people were killed when Israeli soldiers fired on Palestinian civilians seeking aid near Gaza City. According to Israel, the vast majority of them were trampled to death as a result of the panic in the crowd.
Source: Reuters