(Adnkronos) – Israel’s closure of all border crossings has stopped the United Nations World Food Programme from getting any food supplies into war-wrecked Gaza since 2 March and WFP’s concern is also growing over food scarcity in the West Bank, the Rome-based agency said in a statement on Friday.
WFP currently has sufficient food stocks to support kitchens and bakeries in Gaza for up to one month, as well as ready-to-eat food parcels to support 550,000 people for two weeks, the statement said.
As it did prior to the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza, WFP is reducing the quantity of ready-to-eat food parcels provided to families to make its supplies go further and serve more people in need.
WFP currently supports 33 kitchens across Gaza providing a total of 180,000 hot meals daily. A total of 25 bakeries are also supported by WFP, but on 8 March, six of these bakeries were forced to close due to a shortage of cooking gas, the statement said.
Since the closure of border crossings to all humanitarian and commercial goods on 2 March, prices of staple items such as flour, sugar, and vegetables have soared over 200 percent in Gaza and traders have begun hoarding goods due to uncertainty over when new supplies will arrive.
WFP has approximately 63,000 metric tonnes of food destined for Gaza, stored or in transit in the region. This is equivalent two to three months of distributions for 1.1 million people if the supplies are allowed in to the blockaded Palestinian enclave, said the statement.
Growing food insecurity in the West Bank, where military activity, displacement, and movement restrictions are disrupting markets and limiting access to food are also causing growing concern, WFP said.
Tens of thousands of people in the West Bank have been forced from their homes since mid-January and economic conditions have worsened over the last year, pushing up prices.
Growing homelessness and unemployment in the West Bank are making even basic food items unaffordable for many families and WFP is helping over 200,000 people with monthly cash vouchers and one-off cash payments.
Nobel peace-prize-winning WFP is appealing for 265 million dollars from international donors over the next six months to enable it to assist 1.4 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, the statement concluded.
