Gaza hospitals desperately short of supplies; only four or five days of food left in Gaza shops, says WFP
GAZA
President Joe Biden will make a landmark trip to Israel in an “ironclad” show of US support, as efforts to ease a spiralling humanitarian disaster in Gaza intensified.
Gaza authorities say more than 2,800 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, around a quarter of them children, and more than 10,000 wounded are in hospitals desperately short of supplies.
The UN’s World Food Programme also said the food situation in the besieged Gaza Strip was worsening, with only four or five days of stocks left in the shops.
WFP said stocks were getting low in warehouses inside the Palestinian enclave, but at the shop level, the situation was even more acute.
“The situation in Gaza is getting worse by the minute: the humanitarian situation but also of course the food security situation,” WFP’s Middle East spokeswoman Abeer Etefa, told reporters at the UN in Geneva via video-link from Cairo.
“The current stocks of essential food commodities are sufficient for only two weeks — and that’s at the wholesalers’ level,” she said, with the warehouses located in Gaza City in the north of the territory and shops having difficulties replenishing supplies.
“Inside the shops, the stocks are getting close to less than a few days, maybe four or five days of food stocks left.”
Etefa said that out of five flour mills in the Gaza Strip, only one was operating due to security concerns and the unavailability of fuel.
“So the bread supply is running low and people are lining up for hours to get bread,” she said.
‘Solidarity with Israel’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken described President Biden’s visit as a statement of “solidarity with Israel” and an “ironclad commitment to its security”.
Biden’s visit will also seek to avert a regional conflagration with Iran, which on Monday warned of a possible “pre-emptive action” against Israel “in the coming hours”.
Palestinians search through the rubble of a building after an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. PHOTO: AFP
Repeated fire in recent days along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has claimed lives on both sides and compounded fears of a regional spillover of the war.
Biden’s visit also comes amid frantic diplomatic efforts to ease the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza after waves of brutal Israeli retaliatory air strikes on the enclave.
After Israel, Biden will travel to Jordan where he will meet Jordanian King Abdullah II, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Under relentless Israeli bombardment, thousands of Palestinians have died and international agencies warn millions more face dwindling supplies of water, food and fuel – even before a looming Israeli ground invasion.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli military leaders have signalled their intent to destroy Hamas and eradicate the threat it poses.
Tens of thousands of regular Israeli troops and reservists have amassed at the border waiting for the order to go in.
An Israeli military spokesman said it was unclear how Biden’s visit might change the timing of an Israeli ground offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Several notable Hamas figures have already been killed in air strikes, including, on Monday, Osama Mazini, who the Israeli Air Force said claimed part of a top council and “responsible for Hamas prisoners.”
Mourners react as bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes lie at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. PHOTO: Reuters
The bombardment, coupled with an Israeli order to evacuate the north of the Gaza Strip that borders Israel, has forced more than a million Palestinians to flee their homes for the south of the enclave since the 10-day conflict began, according to the UN agency serving Palestinian agencies (UNRWA).
International aid agencies have called for aid to urgently be allowed into the territory, and for Gaza’s border with Egypt to be open to allow civilians to leave.
World Health Organization regional director Ahmed Al-Mandhari told AFP that Gaza was barrelling toward “real catastrophe”.
“There are 24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left” he said.
Washington has backed Israel’s right to strike back at Hamas, but it has also urged measures to ease the impact on ordinary Palestinians caught in the crossfire.
Speaking after marathon talks with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Blinken signalled there was no firm agreement yet on humanitarian relief.
