World Food Program delivers food to northern Gaza for 1st time since Feb. 20

By Giovanni Legorano

ROME (AA) – The World Food Program said Tuesday it managed to deliver food aid to northern Gaza for the first time in three weeks, amid enormous difficulties in providing much-needed humanitarian aid to the enclave’s starving population.

"WFP delivered enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday in first successful convoy to the north since Feb. 20,” the UN agency said on X.

“With the people in northern Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day plus we need entry points directly into the north.”

The WFP decided to pause deliveries of life-saving food aid to northern Gaza on Feb. 20 until conditions were "in place that allow for safe distribution,” it said at the time.

“The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger,” the UN agency added.

Efforts to deliver the desperately needed food supplies to that part of the Gaza Strip resumed on March 5, but were largely unsuccessful.

On that occasion, the WFP said that a 14-truck food convoy, which was the first by the agency since it paused deliveries to the north on Feb. 20, was turned back by the Israeli army after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas in which nearly 1,200 people were killed.

More than 31,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and over 72,700 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 27 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most 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.