{"id":307515,"date":"2025-05-18T14:15:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T18:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=307515"},"modified":"2025-05-21T14:16:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T18:16:39","slug":"eyewitness-we-have-plenty-of-food-ready-to-go-into-gaza-we-just-need-the-go-ahead-stories-shared-by-world-food-programme-staff","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/eyewitness-we-have-plenty-of-food-ready-to-go-into-gaza-we-just-need-the-go-ahead-stories-shared-by-world-food-programme-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyewitness: \u2018We have plenty of food ready to go into Gaza \u2013 we just need the go-ahead\u2019 – Stories shared by World Food Programme Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

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18 May 2025<\/p>\n

Machines gather dust in bakeries and pots sit empty at hot-meal points as a new report confirms hunger is sliding towards starvation and famine<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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A woman holds up a piece of bread made from a crushed pasta as her daughter looks on – with markets in Gaza empty even such desparate measures are increasingly impossible. Photo: WFP\/Ali Jadallah<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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People in Gaza are at risk of starvation, with all aid blocked from entering since 2 March. A report by 17 United Nations agencies and NGOs released last week says 470,000 people face\u00a0catastrophic hunger<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 level 5 on the\u00a0Integrated Food Security Phase Classification<\/a><\/em>, the global standard for measuring food insecurity. It also projects that 71,000 children and more than 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.<\/p>\n

Below, three World Food Programme (WFP) staff share their perspectives: two who visited Deir el-Balah, in the heart of Gaza, in May, and one from Gaza herself.<\/p>\n

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\u2018We need to serve people where they are – fast\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u00a0Antoine Renard, Country Director, WFP Palestine Country Office<\/em><\/p>\n

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WFP Country Director for Palestine Antoine Renard, wearing a scarf, visits a bakery in Khan Younis in October 2024. WFP\/Ali Jadallah<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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Since a network of 25 WFP-supported bakeries closed, we\u2019ve faced significant challenges in keeping bread access alive. Why? Because we don\u2019t have enough wheat flour.<\/em><\/p>\n

The cultural significance of the absence of bread in Gaza cannot be overstated \u2013 bread is life. As one person told me: \u201cNo bread, no Gaza.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Families crush pasta for flour so children can have something resembling bread on the table.<\/em><\/p>\n

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People are using the last of their supplies. Photo: WFP\/Ali Jadallah<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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War resumed on 18 March\u00a0<\/em>\u2013\u00a0with no fuel, no food, supply chains are withering people are left asking: \u201cWill we have a meal tomorrow?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

WFP used to provide affordable bread. A bundle of 21 loaves used to cost two to three shekels (less than US$1). But now a 25kg bag of wheat flour costs over US$500 \u2013 even then, it is likely to have severely deteriorated.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just humanitarian assistance that\u2019s stopped \u2013\u00a0<\/em>we don\u2019t have commercial goods coming in<\/em><\/a>. The private sector relies on commercial goods. People in Gaza shouldn\u2019t have to rely on humanitarian partners to survive.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A man posts a closure notice on the door of a bakery in Gaza – no food has entered the enclave since 2 March. Photo: WFP\/Photolibrary<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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WFP needs the border closures to end. We need food parcels to come in, but that\u2019s not enough. People also need fresh food that they have been lacking for too long.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a high risk of famine. Two weeks ago, 180 kitchens (supported by the Food Security Sector, a humanitarian coordinating body) were still operating, serving 1 million people. Today, only 61 are running, reaching fewer than 250,000 people.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unacceptable. People can\u2019t move. They can\u2019t afford transport. They can\u2019t risk going to the market in the current circumstances \u2013 they might be attacked, face gangs, or be bombed. We need to serve people where they are \u2013 fast.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2018A boy sold his last toy to buy a piece of bread\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Kate Newton, Deputy Country Director, WFP Palestine<\/em><\/p>\n

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Kate Newton, right, and WFP colleagues, meet with a family in a humanitarian tent in Gaza. Photo: WFP<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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We\u2019ve been up and down the Strip and seen with remarkable consistency that there is no food. We\u2019ve been in people\u2019s tents. They\u2019ve shown us their cooking pots.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re sure that people are now going to bed hungry every day and that there\u2019s a real risk of people starting to starve. People are living among rubble, in tents, with no cooking facilities.<\/p>\n

One woman told us she went to one of the remaining hot meal kitchens and there wasn\u2019t even any rice. She was only able to take a pot of soup containing a pot of soup containing 16 beans to her family of five.<\/p>\n

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During the ceasefire WFP served hotmeals to 1 million people across Gaza. Photo: WFP\/Ali Jadallah<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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There\u2019s real hunger here, and we\u2019re very concerned about it. Before 2 March, WFP served hot meals to 1 million people daily. Now, it\u2019s fewer than 25,000 people through 2 kitchens, one in Deir el-Balah and one in Khan Younis.<\/p>\n

That means less than half of the people who are desperately hungry can get any kind of hot food from us. They have no food stocks, very little cash, and the markets are empty.<\/p>\n

Stories our staff hear from families are heartbreaking, like the small boy who sold his last toy to receive a piece of bread. WFP has plenty of food ready to enter Gaza. We have stocks outside the Gaza Strip that can be brought in easily and readily. We just need support to be able to do that.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Famine doesn\u2019t happen overnight\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Nour Hammad, Humanitarian worker, WFP Palestine\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Nour Hammad, right, talks people at a food distribution point in Gaza in 2024. Photo: WFP<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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Initially, we thought the closure of border crossings would last a day or two. But it quickly became clear to our team that we were heading into a potentially prolonged crisis. Since 2 March, the WFP team has been working tirelessly to stretch the limited food stocks remaining, trying to reach as many families as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n

As airstrikes resumed on 18 March, it sank in that the war was back. In early March, many commodities were still available in the market. I remember seeing \u2013 and buying \u2013 cheese, snacks, and basic items. But by the end of March, everything started to disappear. More people turned to WFP for help.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Unexploded bombs among the rubble add to the many challenges people in Gaza. WFP\/Suzanne Fenton<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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By 1 April, the most devastating plot twist happened for people who depended on our humanitarian assistance: all our supported bakeries shut down. People were terrified. If the biggest humanitarian agency in this context can\u2019t help bakeries stay open \u2013 if we\u2019re losing bread from the table \u2013 what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

April was a period of depletion: people started running out of basics slowly but steadily. Wheat flour, vegetable oil, and staple Palestinian commodities began disappearing from the market and people\u2019s stocks. Supermarkets started running out of food one after the other and closed their doors. This alarmed people; it highlighted the uncertain future and the grim reality across the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

By the third week of April, some families had run out of everything, and more were heading to hot-meal kitchens. Others relied on canned food or whatever was left of what they received at humanitarian distribution points.<\/p>\n

The first week of May was disastrous. The people we serve were resorting to the worst coping mechanisms.<\/p>\n

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People pick up food amid the devastation around Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza in February. WFP\/Suzanne Fenton<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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In the market, you could only find spoiled, infested flour with the worst smell imaginable. But when that\u2019s all there is, you use it.<\/p>\n

We started undertaking more field missions to listen to the people of Gaza, hear their voices, and better understand their needs in these extreme shortages.<\/p>\n

People try to put something on the table when so little is available. Women skipping meals so their children can eat what little there is feel dizzy and exhausted.<\/p>\n

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Gazans are in freefall following the closure of borders on 2 March and the resumption of military operations on 18 March. Photo: WFP\/Ali Jadallah<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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Parents put their children to bed early so they don\u2019t have to try to find dinner. With the continued closure of the borders, we often hear from Palestinians here that it feels like a slow death sentence.<\/p>\n

Famine doesn\u2019t happen overnight. You slowly lose access to food. Then you lose weight. Then you lose your strength.<\/p>\n

And what haunts us most as humanitarian workers is hearing people say they\u2019d rather die from an airstrike than go through the suffering of a lack of food and lie to their children about their next meal.<\/p>\n

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Click below to read the latest IPC Analysis Report:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Gaza: With famine looming, FAO urges immediate access to save livelihoods and food production – IPC Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Special Snapshot (April – September 2025)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n