WFP continues to assist millions of people amid ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine
Corinne Fleischer, World Food Programme The director in charge of the three regions briefed reporters on her recent visits to the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.
More evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military, coupled with a “serious deterioration” in security, led to the UN agency reaching fewer people in Gaza in August, although she did not provide figures.
These conditions also hinder efforts to prevent famine from occurring in the land.
Families are struggling to cope
Ms Fleischer said the Middle East had not had a break in the past 13 years due to the Arab Spring, the protracted refugee crisis, the economic collapse of several countries and the war in Ukraine, events that continue to have a profound impact on food inflation.
“And Now, of course, on top of that, we are preparing for a regional war, and this has to stop because families really cannot cope.“, she said.
‘There are no more vacancies’
The WFP official arrived in Gaza in late July and spent a week in the Strip, where some two million Palestinians are crammed into ever-shrinking space. She witnessed people fleeing after an Israeli evacuation order.
“There is simply no more space in Gaza,” she said, noting that makeshift camps have been set up on the beach all the way to the shore, the streets are packed with people, while shelters run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWApacked
She visited a UNRWA facility, home to about 13,000 people, where “you could barely even walk through”.
A WFP-supported bakery in Gaza reopened in April after 170 days of receiving fuel and flour.
Food aid and support for bakeries
Despite enormous challenges, WFP reaches more than one million people in Gaza and the West Bank each month through food assistance, bread and nutrition interventions, she said.
In addition, the UN agency is using “every emergency fund we invest in this” to help restore private sector supply chains by supporting local bakeries, which have started operating again thanks to supplies of flour, fuel and yeast.
WFP is also helping to keep trade flowing amid conflict.
“We redirected our in-kind support to the stores we were working with before, so they could pay their staff and keep the stores open. So when the markets reopened, they would be there,” she said.
Endless hours of waiting
However, she reported that humanitarian operations are becoming increasingly difficult to carry out in Gaza. For example, traveling from Deir Al-Balah in the central area to the northern border crossing now takes eight hours instead of the usual 40 minutes.
Aid workers spend “endless hours” waiting for travel permits, then waiting at stops and checkpoints. The roads have been destroyed and the coming winter will make them even more difficult to travel.
Gaza residents react to the evacuation order issued by the Israeli government.
Impact of evacuation orders
Since she left Gaza, humanitarians have seen more Israeli evacuation orders and a serious deterioration in the security situation, affecting their operations, Ms. Fleischer said.
“WFP lost access to its third and last operational warehouse in Gaza in the Central Region following the evacuation order. We lost five WFP-supported community kitchens that had to be evacuated and we lost nearly 20 distribution points across the Gaza Strip,” she said.
“Although we try to bring food in, more or less, [it’s] not enough, but we can not distribute right now. So, We reached fewer people last month than usual.“ .
The evacuation orders also forced WFP to briefly leave its main operations center in Gaza – the third time since the conflict began.
Restore law and order
Ms Fleischer said the escalating violence was “hindering efforts to prevent famine in Gaza”, where half a million people are living in dire and famine-like conditions.
She called for opening more crossing points into the area, streamlining operations so that humanitarian organizations can carry out their missions, and restoring law and order so that they can safely reach those in need.
“We also need cash to go back into Gaza so people can start shopping in stores again,” she said.
Agricultural activity has been severely disrupted by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Exhaustion and displacement in Ukraine
Turning to Ukraine, Ms. Fleischer reported on her visit to Sumy province two weeks ago, where the situation was “also tragic.”
She met people whose homes were destroyed “and you could feel their exhaustion after being displaced so many times.”
The WFP left Ukraine six years ago but returned after Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. Since then, teams have reached about two million people, mainly in frontline areas, with cash and food.
Grain exports, pension support
Here again, UN agency invests “every dollar” in strengthening local capacityproviding more than $1.2 billion to the economy, mainly through the purchase of food used in Ukraine from local producers.
WFP has also exported one million tonnes of food to countries in need under the humanitarian initiative ‘Grain from Ukraine’.
“We work very closely with the Government to complement their social protection system,” she added. “So, We supplement pensions and we supplement disability pensions for people, instead of giving them full pensions.“ .
WFP also brings food to the front lines where supply chains are broken, and helps restore these vital networks.
This includes supporting bakeries and carrying out a mine clearance project with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Food and Agriculture Organization), allowing about 5,000 small-scale farmers to return to their fields.
