Image Source: France24
World – “Gaza is the hungriest place on Earth,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva, describing a worsening crisis where food is being allowed in at a painfully slow pace.
“The limited number of truckloads coming in is a trickle. It is drip-feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger. It’s not a flood,” he said.
Laerke explained that a full-scale aid operation is ready to move but is being held back. “The aid operation that we have ready to roll is being put in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations not only in the world today, but in the recent history of global humanitarian response anywhere.”
He pointed to Israel as the source of the restrictions. “The blockade and the tight control of the operation is imposed by a party to the conflict,” he said, referring to Israel as the occupying power in Gaza. He also criticised Israel’s suggested alternatives for aid delivery as “neither impartial, independent, nor workable.”
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Frustration Mounts Over Aid Piling Up at Borders
Adding to the concern, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa shared that aid is sitting in warehouses just outside Gaza, unable to reach those in need.
“It’s deeply upsetting and frustrating to know that there are tons of humanitarian aid ready to enter the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Speaking about the situation in Egypt, he added: “We’re talking with colleagues on the Egypt side… where warehouses are full of aid that can enter any time, and we are not able to get it in. And the same from Jordan.”
He stressed that the delay is no longer acceptable. “The request here is really to have the entrance of humanitarian aid at scale, from any border crossing possible, immediately. I think that also the time of words has finished months ago, and now we need to see actions, finally.”
As supplies dwindle and hunger worsens, aid agencies are warning that without immediate access, the consequences will be catastrophic.
