Corinne Fleischer, the Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe at the World Food Programme, confirmed that humanitarian operations in Gaza have become more difficult than ever. The violence practiced by Israeli forces against relief workers in Gaza is hindering efforts to prevent famine, at a time when half a million people live in catastrophic conditions, especially with the rapid approach of winter in the devastated sector.
According to the UN Media Center, Fleischer pointed out several obstacles faced by humanitarian workers, including endless hours to get the green light to move, roads that will become impassable in the winter months, and severe congestion, with two million people now living on about 11% of the already densely populated sector’s area.
The UN official mentioned that last month saw an increase in evacuation orders and a significant deterioration in the security environment for humanitarian organization staff, deeply impacting the program’s ability to reach people, as the World Food Programme lost access to its third and last operational warehouse in Gaza, in the central region, due to evacuation orders.
She emphasized the need to increase crossing points and streamline humanitarian operations to allow the program to function, also noting the necessity of restoring order and rule of law in Gaza, and allowing money to be brought into the sector so people can start buying again from stores.
Fleischer stated that the World Food Programme had to suspend its operations for a few days after being targeted by Israeli forces, then resumed operations following assurances from Israeli authorities that they would provide a report of an investigation into the incident and that a review of the coordination mechanism was ongoing, although the program has not yet received the investigation report.
Regarding the Ukrainian file, the WFP official said that the program buys most of the food it uses within Ukraine from local markets and sends a million tons of food to needy countries. She said the program works closely with the government to complement its social protection system and brings food to the front lines where supply chains are destroyed.
She added that people in the Middle East “have not had a break” since the Arab Spring about 13 years ago, which saw a prolonged refugee crisis, near-complete economic collapse in some countries, and extremely high food inflation linked to the war in Ukraine.
In the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, nearly 50 million people suffer from food insecurity, which is double what it was before the Arab Spring, and now the World Food Programme must feed six times the number of people it did before the Arab Spring. Now, of course, in addition to that, they are preparing for a regional war. “This must stop because families really can’t cope,” said Fleischer.
Fleischer noted that donations to the World Food Programme’s operations have returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, but the needs of the people and food prices have increased significantly. This has forced the program to significantly reduce its operations, giving Syria as an example where the program used to reach 6 million people each month, and now reaches only about one million.
