ROME
\nDaily life has become \u201capocalyptic\u201d in parts of southern Gaza since Israel moved into the city of Rafah, though the situation in the north is improving, the UN\u2019s food agency said Friday.
\n\u201cThe exodus that we\u2019ve seen in the past 20 days or so out of Rafah has been an awesome and horrific experience for many, many people,\u201d Matthew Hollingworth, the World Food Programme (WFP) director for the Palestinian territories.
\nThey have fled the fighting to areas where there was not enough water, health care or fuel, where food was limited, telecommunications had stopped and there was not enough space to dig pit latrines, Hollingworth told an online briefing.
\nThe public health situation was \u201cbeyond crisis levels,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cThe sounds and smells of everyday life are horrific and apocalyptic.\u201d
\nPeople \u201csleep to the sounds of war… and they wake to the same sounds,\u201d he said.
\nThe WFP was able to provide \u201cever decreasing amounts of assistance,\u201d with all of its bakeries in Rafah closed due to a lack of fuel and supplies, he said.
\nFrom May 7 \u2014 when Israeli tanks and troops entered Rafah\u2019s east \u2014 to May 20, \u201cnot a single WFP truck crossed from the southern corridors from Egypt,\u201d Hollingworth said.
\nThe WFP also lost access to its main warehouse in the south of the Gaza Strip because it was in an evacuation zone, with 2,700 tons of food either looted or destroyed in fighting.
\nHollingworth said the WFP was serving around 27,000 people with hot meals in Rafah \u2014 \u201cbut that\u2019s not enough.\u201d
\nIn central areas of the Gaza Strip, where many people fled, the WFP is providing around 400,000 hot meals a day, and has kept six bakeries functioning.
\nCommercial food is also getting in, he said, but many people have no money, with some even resorting to trading their identity cards \u2014 which they need if they want to register for aid.
\nHollingworth said aid trucks from Egypt had begun entering the Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.
\n\u201cSince May 20, we have started to get a trickle of assistance in,\u201d he said, though he warned the security situation was still slowing down the deliveries.
\n\u201cThat has to turn into a flood of assistance if we\u2019re going to ensure we don\u2019t start seeing the most acute forms of hunger becoming more common,\u201d he said.
\nIn the north of the Palestinian territory, by contrast, where UN agencies warned of imminent famine in March, Hollingworth said the situation was improving.
\nWith the opening of crossings, around 12,000 tons of inter-agency assistance, mostly food, had been delivered since May 1.
\n\u201cThere has been a step change in terms of availability of food,\u201d he said, though problems of health care, clean water supply and sewage remained.
\nThe United States has built a temporary pier into Gaza, but it was damaged in poor weather, suspending deliveries.
\nDuring the two weeks it was open, about 1,000 tons of inter-agency aid moved through the pier, Hollingworth said.
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government is doing everything to avoid famine in Gaza, and noted a study saying that calorie consumption in the territory was 3,200 a day \u2014 more than enough.
\n\u201cI have not seen anybody, aid workers alike who live off protein bars, eat 3,000 calories or more in Gaza,\u201d Hollingworth said.
\nThe Gaza war was sparked by Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
\nMilitants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
\nIsrael\u2019s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,284 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory\u2019s health ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROME Daily life has become \u201capocalyptic\u201d in parts of southern Gaza since Israel moved into the city of Rafah, though the situation in the north is improving, the UN\u2019s food agency said Friday. \u201cThe exodus that we\u2019ve seen in the past 20 days or so out of Rafah has been an awesome and horrific experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-410273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n