WFP ready for another surge in aid for Gaza if sides agree to ceasefire

UN food agency says it has enough supplies to feed entire population for two months

A man carries a sack of flour from a World Food Programme distribution point in Gaza city on July 26. Bloomberg

The World Food Programme is standing by to deliver a much-needed surge in aid to Gaza if negotiations for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory succeed, the agency’s deputy executive director Carl Skau told The National.

The coastal enclave’s more than 2 million residents have suffered extreme levels of hunger after Israeli blockades and strict controls over aid delivery before the collapse of a ceasefire in March.

A recent WFP assessment found nearly one person in three in Gaza is not eating for days at a time. Also, nearly half a million people are expected to face catastrophic hunger between May and September this year.

As many as 600 lorries of aid entered Gaza each day during a truce that began on January 19, and Mr Skau said the WFP had been told to be “ready to bring the scale that we had last time around”.

He said the agency has enough aid waiting to feed civilians in Gaza for two months, but needed to be given "full access" to the territory.

"We need those routes. We need those entry points, but whether that will happen or not, that I can't say because I'm not privy to these negotiations,” he said, referring to ceasefire negotiations taking place in Qatar.

"We have food on what we call the borders in Egypt, in Jordan, in [the Israeli port city of] Ashdod, to feed the entire population for the next two months if needed," Mr Skau said. "People have never been more desperate, certainly on the food-security front."

The current ceasefire proposal would see Hamas hand over 10 live hostages and the bodies of 18 others during a 60-day ceasefire, with large numbers of Palestinians released from Israeli jails in exchange.

The proposal includes a provision for a surge in deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Mr Skau said that during the last ceasefire, the WFP "showed what was possible: delivering over 8,000 trucks of food in only 42 days. We can do it again".

He said the need for agreement on a new truce was "urgent".

"If there is no ceasefire, I frankly don't know how we're going to continue and how the situation then could or can evolve."

The responsibility for distributing aid is still undecided in the truce talks, with Hamas insisting that it be carried out by the UN and associated agencies and Israel insisting that it be done by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, sources say.

Obstacles to aid

Mr Skau said that although the WFP was being allowed to take aid into Gaza, despite challenges, it was not enough and was not reaching everyone.

"We are not getting the variety of commodities that are required," he said. He added that the agency was unable to distribute the aid where it is needed most, including in the north of Gaza.

"We don't have spare parts for our vehicles and our trucks, we don't have the communication equipment needed to stay in touch. We're not getting the clearances fast enough so that we can move when there are crowds that put risk to our trucks," he said.