Gaza: Famine fears persist as Israeli operations continue to harm farmers in the enclave
The development comes as media reports said that ceasefire and hostage-exchange talks in Doha scheduled for Thursday in Qatar have been postponed until early next week. Some 116 hostages remain missing, with 44 presumed dead, reports said, nearly 10 months after Hamas-led terror attacks on multiple targets in southern Israel left some 1,250 people dead and more than 250 taken prisoner.
In one gloomy review hunger levels in Gaza late Wednesday, the United Nations aid coordination office, OCHAonce again warned that too little relief is reaching those who need it most.
“Insecurity, damaged roads, breakdown of law and order, and restrictions on access continue to impede movement along the main humanitarian convoy route. between Kerem Shalom Crossing and Khan Younis and Deir al Balah,” the UN agency stressed.
Community kitchens are in danger.
OCHA noted that inadequate fuel and aid deliveries from central/southern Gaza to the north have left six bakeries in northern Gaza – four in Gaza City and two in northern Gaza – receiving only “scarce” enough supplies to operate for a few days.
The report warned that “severe shortages” of goods had hit community kitchens and increased the “risk of spoilage and contamination of stored food supplies” amid scorching summer temperatures.
“In addition, hot meal production capacity in Gaza and North Gaza governorates is insufficient to support tens of thousands of newly displaced people,” OCHA continued, explaining that “The absence of commercial supplies into northern Gaza for nearly three months has led to an almost complete shortage of protein sources such as meat and poultry on the local market.”
Today in northern Gaza, only a few varieties are produced locally. Vegetables are available at “unaffordable” pricesThe UN agency explained, warning that a lack of “seeds, fertilizers and other livestock and crop production inputs” remains “a major obstacle” to restoring local food production in Gaza.
OCHA also pointed to Israeli military operations that have devastated Rafah since early May and caused this week’s exodus from eastern Khan Younis, “which had significant agricultural production before the war”.
In addition to the latest damage to greenhouses, farms and fields in Gaza are now left unattended. “The The consequences of missing the upcoming agricultural season could be devastating for people’s livelihoods,“OCHA update warned.
That assessment is in line with previous warnings from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (Food and Agriculture Organization), which emphasizes that agriculture in the Gaza Strip represent covers more than 40 percent of the land’s surface area and contributes up to 30 percent of daily consumption.
“The damage to agriculture caused by the fighting has been extensive, causing vital local production of fresh and nutritious food to come to a near halt, reducing people’s access to essential food items needed for healthy diets,” the report said. speak.
According to the latest UN-sponsored IPC hunger report, 96 percent of Gaza’s population – some 2.15 million people – face acute food insecurity at “crisis” or higher levels. That’s level three of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) indicator (see explainer about IPC system here).
