The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) called on Saturday for sustained access to Gaza to address the dire humanitarian situation, according to an official statement release.
The opening of the Egyptian-Gaza border crossing allowed a convoy of trucks to bring desperately needed food, water, and supplies provided by the Egyptian Red Crescent and the United Nations.
The three trucks carried 60 metric tons of WFP emergency food, including canned tuna, wheat flour, pasta, canned beans, and canned tomato paste.
Cindy McCain, WFP Executive Director, said, “This food is desperately needed as the conditions inside Gaza are truly catastrophic. These twenty trucks are an important first step, but this convoy has to be the first of many.”
WFP has other emergency food items ready for delivery to Gaza when access is allowed again.
Since the recent escalation, WFP has been providing food assistance to around 520,000 people and hopes to increase that number to 1.1 million in the next two months, included the statment.
Even though WFP supplies fresh bread to Gazans in UN shelters, flour to contracted bakeries, and cash vouchers that can be redeemed in food shops, the lack of power, fuel, and low commercial food stocks pose challenges that necessitate immediate intervention, the same source added.