Famine is not just a risk, but is likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza, aid groups working in the Gaza Strip said in a joint statement on Thursday, as Israel’s complete blockade of food, water, fuel, medical supplies, and other essential aid continue for more than a month.
A new humanitarian access survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organisations working in Gaza found nearly all of them – 95% – have had to suspend or dramatically cut services since the ceasefire ended one month ago on 18 March, with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around.
“Kids are eating less than a meal a day and struggling to find their next meal,” said Bushra Khalil, policy head of the aid group Oxfam.
A joint statement by the CEOs of 12 major aid organisations said, “We have supplies ready. We have trained medical staff. We have the expertise. What we don’t have is the access – or the guarantee by Israeli authorities that our teams can safely do their jobs.
“Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point.”
“Humanitarians have been forced to watch people suffer and die while carrying the impossible burden of providing relief with depleted supplies, all while facing the same life-threatening conditions themselves,” added Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders.
Twenty-four of the surveyed organisations reported increased movement restrictions in Gaza, impeding their ability to deliver aid. Nineteen aid organisations reported having cargo stuck outside Gaza, totaling at least 9,000 pallets of aid supplies.
Gaza now holds the disastrous record of being the deadliest place on earth for humanitarian workers. We cannot operate under fire or stay silent while our staff are killed.
More than 400 aid workers and over 1,300 health workers have been reported killed in Gaza since October 2023, despite the requirement under international humanitarian law for humanitarian workers to be protected.
The recent killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, whose bodies were found buried in a mass grave triggered global outrage, but many violations and attacks go unreported.
Despite hopes that the eight-week pause in hostilities would become a turning point, the violence against civilians and aid workers has only worsened. Since Israeli forces resumed bombardments, at least 14 organisations reported Israeli fire directly or indirectly hitting their staff or aid facilities.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called it “likely … the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months” since the war began.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), described the situation in Gaza as “dire and worsening,” with all WFP-supported bakeries across the territory closing after wheat flour ran out March 31. By early April, she said, the WFP had also exhausted its stocks of food parcels for distribution.
“Remaining stocks of hot meals commodities are being dispatched to the kitchens of partners providing hot meals,” she said, adding: “We have around 1,000 tons or less left for these hot meals kitchens.”
The WFP and its partners have 85,000 tons of food waiting to enter the enclave, she said.
The Global Nutrition Cluster, a coalition of humanitarian groups, has warned that in March alone, 3,696 children were newly admitted for care for acute malnutrition alone, out of 91,769 children screened — a marked increase from February, when 2,027 children were admitted from a total of 83,823 screened, OCHA said in a report Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has sounded the alarm that medical supplies in the enclave are running low, while casualties continue to fill hospitals.
Since Israel’s resumption of the war almost one month ago, there have been 1,630 recorded killings in Gaza, a majority of them children and women. More than 51,000 have been killed since 7 October 2023, with more than 116,343 wounded.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz clarified and reiterated that no aid convoys will be allowed inside the Strip as a tool to pressure Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have proposed a new authorisation mechanism for the delivery of aid in Gaza that the UN Secretary-General has described as “limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour.” This mechanism would set a dangerous new global precedent and eliminate any remaining space to deliver aid independent of military and political motivations. New NGO visa and registration rules, based on vague criteria, will censor humanitarian reporting and prevent us from fulfilling our mandate.
