The World Food Program said Friday that its food stocks for families in Gaza have been depleted. File Photo by Haitham Imad/EPA-EFE
April 25 (UPI) — The United Nations World Food Program announced Friday that all of its food stocks for families in Gaza have run out.
“Today, WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza Strip,” the program wrote in a press release, “These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days.”
WFP then stated that the kitchens have served as the “the only consistent source of food assistance for people in Gaza,” and added “WFP has also supported bakeries to distribute affordable bread in Gaza,” but that all 25 WFP-supported bakeries closed,” in March “as wheat flour and cooking fuel ran out.”
As the Israel-Hamas conflict has continued, Israel has maintained a blockade, which has stopped all humanitarian or commercial supplies into Gaza for over seven weeks, with all main border crossing points closed.
Over 127,000 tons of food assistance, “enough to feed one million people for up to four months, is positioned at aid corridors and is ready to be brought into Gaza by WFP and food security partners as soon as borders reopen,” WFP explained.
WFP said this is the longest closure ever imposed on the Gaza Strip, which has driven food prices up 1,400% when compared to during the cease-fire, and in combination with the end of its food stocks, it especially impacts “vulnerable populations, including children under five, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly.”
The organization has concluded that the “situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached a breaking point,” and unless “urgent action to open borders for aid and trade to enter,” is made, WFP may have to pull out.