Entire 2.2 million population of Gaza, about half of them kids, at risk of starvation, warns UN – Times of India

The entire population of Gaza – 2.2 million, with about half of them being children – is in need of food assistance and at risk of starvation because of a collapsed food supply chain and insufficient aid delivery, the UN‘s World Food Program (WFP) said Thursday. Food stocks are rapidly running out, markets and bakeries have closed, and fresh food is not available because of a lack of refrigeration and a halt to farming and fishing, a situation that the WFP called “catastrophic.” The organisation also said just 10% of what it characterised as the necessary amount of food aid was being delivered into Gaza.”We are already starting to see cases of dehydration and malnutrition, which is increasing rapidly,” Abeer Etefa, a WFP spokeswoman, told reporters at the UN. “People are facing immediate possibility of starvation.” Gazans are barely able to have one meal per day, which typically consists of canned food and raw vegetables, because there is no gas or fuel to cook, the group said. The last bakery in Gaza closed, the food supply system in Gaza has collapsed and shops have run out of supplies, the group said. Itay Milner, spokesman for the Israeli consulate in New York, said that Israel has been working to facilitate the distribution of aid to civilians in Gaza, and urged people to relocate to what he called safer areas, such as near the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, where Israel has allowed foreign assistance to enter the strip.