Gaza (Union)
The World Food Program confirmed the race against time, warning of the risk of complete collapse of the most basic basic services in the Gaza Strip, not to mention the famine that threatens the lives of the residents there.
The World Food Program said in a blog post published on its account on the “X” platform: “We are racing against time to avoid the complete collapse of the most basic basic services and starvation for millions in the Gaza Strip.”
The World Food Program stressed: “This matter can only be ended with a long-term ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access.”
Many international reports have recently been issued by various international bodies concerned with the issue of food, nutrition and human rights, all of which have acknowledged that civilians in the Gaza Strip suffer from a general and severe food shortage, and widespread hunger among Palestinian families who spend entire days without obtaining any food.
It showed that more than half a million people in the Gaza Strip are starving, and that 4 out of every 5 hungry people in the world are in the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, Thomas White, Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza, said that 40% of the Strip’s population is at risk of famine.
White added, “There is a need to deliver humanitarian aid to every place in Gaza in a safe and sustainable manner, including the northern Strip.”
In this context, Israel announced yesterday its readiness to allow ships to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, within the framework of a sea corridor proposed by Cyprus, and identified 4 European countries capable of potential participation in the operation.
Under the arrangement first proposed by Nicosia last November, the shipments would undergo security inspection at the Cypriot port of Larnaca, before being transported to the Gaza coast, 370 kilometers away.
“It could start immediately,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said.
He added, “Britain, France, Greece and the Netherlands are among the countries that have ships capable of directly reaching the shores of Gaza, which lacks a deep-water port.”
He seemed to indicate that he expected them to do so rather than unload aid into Israel.
Cohen said: “They asked us for the equipment to come through the Israeli port of Ashdod. The answer is no. It will not come through Ashdod. It will not come through Israel. We want to disengage from security monitoring. This is the goal of this operation.”
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