UN food agency says food deliveries to northern Gaza facing 'further setbacks'

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Efforts to deliver desperately needed food supplies to northern Gaza resumed Tuesday but were "largely unsuccessful," said the World Food Program (WFP).

A 14-truck food convoy, the first one by the agency since it paused deliveries to the north on Feb. 20, was turned back by Israeli forces after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, the WFP said in a statement.

"Although today’s convoy did not make it to the north to provide food to the people who are starving, WFP continues to explore every possible means to do so," said Carl Skau, WFP’s deputy executive director.

Saying that road routes are the only option to transport the large quantities of food needed to avert famine in northern Gaza, it noted that earlier in the day, with the help of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, six tons of WFP food supplies for 20,000 people were dropped in northern Gaza.

"Airdrops are a last resort and will not avert famine. We need entry points to northern Gaza that will allow us to deliver enough food for half a million people in desperate need," said Skau

According to the UN, hunger has reached "catastrophic levels" in northern Gaza, where children are dying of hunger-related diseases and suffering severe levels of malnutrition.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed at least 30,631 people and injured 72,043 others with mass destruction and shortages of necessities

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.