“There is no one in #Gaza now outside the scope of #famine, not even myself,” said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, who leads the pediatric ward at Nasser Hospital in southern #Gaza. “I am speaking to you as a #health official, but I, too, am searching for flour to feed my family.”

The #WorldFoodProgram, an arm of the #UN, said this week that the #hunger #crisis in Gaza had reached “new & astonishing levels of desperation, with a third of the population not eating for multiple days in a row.”

Instead, what exists now is a total #siege. For 60 days, #Israel’s authorities have blocked the entry of #humanitarian #aid & commercial goods in….That has left the already beleaguered residents of #Gaza in an even more miserable predicament. The #WorldFoodProgram said this week that its warehouses are empty & that bakeries & soup kitchens are rationing their last stocks. #UN experts say that #malnutrition rates are rising & that the prospect of a full-blown #famine is now all-too real.

After seven weeks of bombing and a genocidal blockade of all humanitarian and food aid going into Gaza, the UN's World Food Program is now announcing that it has run out of food inside the strip; which will further exacerbate a humanitarian crisis engineered by the government off Israel as part of the genocide it's conducting against Palestinians in the enclave.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-food

UN Program Out of Food in Gaza as Israel Maintains Blockade

"No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza for more than seven weeks as all main border crossing points remain closed," WFP said Friday. "This is the longest closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced, exacerbating already fragile markets and food systems. Food prices have skyrocketed up to 1,400% compared to during the cease-fire, and essential food commodities are in short supply, raising serious nutrition concerns for vulnerable populations, including children under 5, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly."

Over 18 months into a U.S.-backed military assault for which Israel faces a genocide case at the Interenational Court of Justice, WFP said that "the situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached a breaking point: People are running out of ways to cope, and the fragile gains made during the short ceasefire have unravelled. Without urgent action to open borders for aid and trade to enter, WFP's critical assistance may be forced to end."

While conditions are dire, WFP is prepared to keep feeding people, if Israel will allow aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave. The program highlighted that "more than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance—enough to feed 1 million people for up to four months—is positioned at aid corridors and is ready to be brought into Gaza by WFP and food security partners as soon as borders reopen."

The program called on "all parties to prioritize the needs of civilians and allow aid to enter Gaza immediately and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law."

I need to stress here that this isn't an activist organization, or political representatives from Gaza talking here; this is a UN program that feeds refugees, the exploited, and folks in crisis situations. There is absolutely no reason to believe they're exaggerating the situation, which in turn means we're watching Israel commit a crime against humanity in real time. If this were anyone other than a US client state in the MENA, the entire American establishment would be able to see that there is no reason to continuously bomb Gaza while enforcing a nearly two month long blockade on food, supplies, and humanitarian aid, unless you're actively trying to kill innocent people. Which of course Israel is; they're committing a genocide, the Trump administration is happily paying for it, and a bipartisan US establishment awash in PAC and donor money, is quietly ignoring that genocide for political, financial, and ideological reasons.

About 60 letters canceling contracts were sent over the past week, including for major projects w/the #WorldFoodProgram, the world’s largest provider of #food aid, a #USAID ofcl said. An ofcl w/the #UnitedNations in the #MiddleEast said the #WFP received termination letters for US-funded programs in #Lebanon, #Jordan & #Syria.