World Food Programme Suspends Humanitarian Aid in Rafah

Khan Yunis (—), 15/05/2024.- Makeshift shelters at a new camp for internally displaced Palestinians, after the Israeli army asked them to evacuate the city of Rafah, west of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, 15 May 2024 (issued 16 May 2024). More than 35,100 Palestinians and over 1,455 Israelis have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), since Hamas militants launched an attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on 07 October 2023, and the Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank which followed it. EFE/EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

May 16, 2024 Hour: 9:40 pm

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced the suspension of food aid distributions in the Rafah area, south of the Gaza Strip in Palestine, following the depletion of its reserves in that enclave.

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WFP’s decision comes amid a very tense situation in Gaza, as according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “for several days now, the crossings to Gaza have been closed, dangerous to access or logistically unfeasible”.

Added to this is Israel’s interruption of the Rafah-Egypt border crossing, where the latest IDF attacks have been concentrated in recent days.

Against this background, WFP has projected its concern on the basis of the argument that these latest attacks could lead to a humanitarian disaster and, in turn, lead to a total halt in aid.

“We need safe and unfettered access at scale…the situation on the ground is chaotic.”@WFPChief spoke to @bbcworldservice on the urgency of getting humanitarian assistance into the #Gaza Strip, especially in the south right now. pic.twitter.com/N3SYGpYhLZ

— WFP UK (@WFP_UK)
May 16, 2024

“Since May 6, we cannot access or receive aid at the Kerem Shalom border crossing,” the organization said, emphasizing that “the situation is becoming untenable”.

These obstacles affect “more than two million people” and according to OCHA, “access to health services continues to decrease and population displacement increases as new evacuation orders are issued and military operations intensify”.

For its part, the United Nations (UN) has detailed that access routes to the territory of Rafah “are not safe” and, according to this body, “security incidents” are occurring.

#Gaza:
⚠️ Access to critical health services continues to shrink and displacement is on the rise as new evacuation orders are issued and military operations intensify.

⚠️ Resource shortages severely challenge life-saving search and rescue efforts.

More in our latest update ⬇️

— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA)
May 15, 2024

The organization has also reported that “in northern Gaza, acute malnutrition rates among children under two have doubled from 15 percent in January to 30 percent in March”.

“Acute malnutrition is deadly, and affected children are three to twelve times more likely to die than a well-fed child,” says WFP.

The tense food situation in southern Gaza was exacerbated by the attacks by Zionists on humanitarian aid trucks and the constant shelling by Israeli forces, which had claimed more than 35,200 lives 223 days after the start of the genocide.