Devendra Kumar
The World Food Programme has suspended its food deliveries to the isolated northern Gaza region due to the ongoing turmoil and violence, sparking concerns about potential famine. The UN children’s agency warned that one in six children in the north is acutely malnourished, and the Israeli military’s failure to ensure the safety of aid convoys has crippled the distribution of food to the beleaguered Palestinians. As a result, families are limiting themselves to one meal a day, and some are even resorting to mixing animal and bird feed with grains to bake bread. The north of Gaza, including Gaza City, has been isolated since October, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians largely cut off from aid.
Conditions are dire, with Soad Abu Hussein, a widow and mother of five sheltering in a school in Jabaliya refugee camp, describing the situation as “beyond imagination.” “It’s hard to find food, and what we do find is spoiled or rotten,” she said. Ayman Abu Awad, who lives in Zaytoun, said he eats only one meal a day to save whatever he can for his four children. The World Food Programme cited “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” as the reason for its decision to halt aid deliveries, warning of a “precipitous slide into hunger and disease.”
Unicef officials are equally concerned, warning that Gaza is on the verge of witnessing an explosion in preventable child deaths, which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in the territory. More than 80% of the population has been displaced, and entire neighborhoods have been obliterated in the conflict. Meanwhile, Qatar has confirmed that Hamas has begun delivering medications to hostages, a month after the medications arrived in Gaza under a deal mediated by the Gulf state and France.
However, the war shows no signs of slowing down, with Israel vowing to expand its offensive to Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population has sought refuge. The Gaza Health Ministry has reported a total of 29,195 Palestinian deaths since October 7, with women and children making up two-thirds of those killed. The situation continues to deteriorate, with families living in constant fear of violence and without access to basic necessities. The conflict has left Gaza’s residents facing a devastating reality, with sustenance and safety increasingly distant prospects.