UN: Gaza Food Aid Still Insufficient Despite Post-Truce Improvements

By Staff, Agencies

The United Nations World Food Program [WFP] says food supplies entering Gaza have increased since the October ceasefire, but remain far below what is needed to address the territory’s severe humanitarian crisis—now compounded by winter weather that is spoiling stored food.

“Things are better than before the ceasefire, but we have a long way to go,” WFP spokesperson Martin Penner told reporters in Geneva via video link from the Gaza Strip. He stressed that sustained assistance is essential “to help families rebuild their health, their nutrition and their lives.”

According to the WFP, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain in urgent need of food support. A global food-monitoring body warned in August that at least half a million people were experiencing famine conditions in parts of the enclave.

Heavy rainfall earlier this week washed away and ruined some food supplies that displaced families had been storing, WFP senior spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said—underscoring the increasing dangers as winter sets in.

Since the fragile “Israel”-Hamas ceasefire took effect on October 10—after two years of war that devastated the densely populated territory—the WFP has brought 40,000 tons of food into Gaza. Still, logistical challenges earlier in the month meant the organization reached only 530,000 people with food parcels, roughly 30% of its 1.6 million target. The agency says deliveries are now accelerating.

While local markets have begun to revive, prices remain far beyond the reach of many Palestinians who lost their income during the war. A single chicken now costs around $25, forcing most families to rely heavily on food aid.

Penner shared the account of a woman in Khan Younis who told the WFP that she avoids taking her children to the market so they will not see the food they cannot afford. “If they go near the market, she tells them to cover their eyes,” he said.