Tel AVIV, Israel (AP) – The head of the UN Food Agency said she was “very obvious” on Thursday I’ll be visiting Gaza this week Things that aren’t there Enough food in Palestinian territory And she spoke with the Israeli Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu On the urgent need for more assistance.
The world’s leading authority on food crisis said last week The biggest city on the Gaza Strip is held by hungerand that it is likely to spread across the territory. No ending of ceasefires and restrictions About humanitarian assistance.
Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, told The Associated Press that star is ongoing in Gaza.
“I personally met my mother and children who were hunger for Gaza,” she said. “It’s real and it’s happening now.”
Netanyahu said “It’s obviously very worried that people aren’t getting enough food,” she said. In the past, he has I denied that there is hunger in Gaza I said A claim about starvation This is a propaganda campaign launched by Hamas.
“We have agreed that we must quickly double our efforts to get more humanitarian assistance. The access and security of our convoys is important,” McCain said.
Pressure on Israel
The Hungerness Declaration has heightened international pressure on Israel, which has been fighting Hamas since the fatal attack on extremist groups on October 7, 2023. Israel says it is planning now Grab the city of Gaza and other Hamas basesand there were no signs of public advancement in recent efforts to ceasefire.
Israel rejected a declaration issued by the integrated food security stages, or by the food crisis authorities known as the IPC, and called for a formal withdrawal on Wednesday.
Israeli military agency responsible for transferring aid to the territory known as Cogat said Thursday that more than 300 humanitarian trucks will enter Gaza every day.
But aid groups say that after 22 months of fighting, aid blockade earlier this year and a collapse in food production in Gaza, that isn’t enough. McCain spent most of Tuesday on tours of Gaza talking to displaced people living in tents and facing starvation.
“I was able to meet families who came from the north, there were 11 of them, and they came from the north, they literally didn’t have enough food and they still didn’t have enough food,” she said.
McCain said her program is taking more food into Gaza, but she said there is a need for a surge in food supply.
“Modern Catastrophe”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said hunger in Gaza was a “modern catastrophe” and that the beginning of the expanded Israeli military operation presents a “new and dangerous phase.”
He said it would have “devastating consequences” and would force hundreds of thousands of traumatized and exhausted civilians to flee again.
“Gaza has bleu tiles, bodies are piled up and examples of serious violations of international law,” he said.
Mediators Egypt and Qatar were still waiting for Israel’s response to 60 days Proposal of a ceasefire in GazaQatar’s Foreign Minister said Thursday.
According to Arab intermediaries, the proposals brought to Israel earlier this month by Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries seek a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages and the extradition of 18 bodies. They also call for Israeli forces to withdraw to Gaza’s buffer zone.
Exchange with the Houthi Rebels of Yemen
See you Thursday, Israeli airstrikes have hit Yemen’s capital SanaaIn response to an attack by the Arab state Iran-backed Hooti rebels who fired missiles and drones at Israel for over 22 months and targeted targeted Red Sea ships. Houthis says the attack is in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Almost 63,000 people have died in Gaza since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s Palestinian Ministry of Health. The agency reported that 71 people were killed on Israeli strikes on the past day, but the score was further injured. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it says that more than half of the deaths were women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and independent experts consider it the most reliable source of information on victims of war. Israel disputes the figures, but does not provide its own.
Hamas-led militants lured 251 people and on October 7, 2023 killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and launched a war-raising attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires and other deals. Of the 50 remaining in Gaza, Israel believes that around 20 are alive.
The UN chief said that Israel, as a right to occupation, is obligated to protect civilians, promote far more humanitarian access, and meet their essential needs.
The systematic dismantling of the food and healthcare system was “the result of a deliberate decision that ignores basic humanity.”
___Magdi reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Melanie Ridman in Jerusalem, Edith M. Lederer of the United Nations, and Maryclair Dale of Philadelphia contributed to the report.
