Food flows into Gaza still far below targets, says WFP

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that supplies into Gaza were ramping up after the US-brokered ceasefire but were still far short of its daily target of 2,000 tonnes because only two crossings are open, and none to the famine-hit north of the enclave.

Around 750 metric tonnes of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily, according to the WFP, but this was still well below the scale of needs after two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas that has reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

“To be able to get to this scale-up, we have to use every border crossing point right now,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told a Geneva press briefing.

She said only two of the Israeli-controlled crossings into Gaza were operational - Kerem Shalom in the south and Kissufim in the centre.

The ceasefire plan brokered by US President Donald Trump envisages “full aid” being sent into Gaza. An Israeli security official said that humanitarian aid continues to enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing and additional crossings in accordance with the plan, without naming them.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice, with its reopening dependent on Hamas handing over bodies of deceased hostages.

The UN children’s agency spokesperson Ricardo Pires said on Tuesday the humanitarian response was still far below the required scale and called for all entry points to reopen.

Some nutrition supplies for children and pregnant women have reached the north via the south, Etefa said, but far short of the level required.

“We haven’t had large-scale convoys into Gaza City or to the north of Gaza,” she said, adding that WFP had not been granted permission to use the main north-south Salah Al Din road.

Food supplies delivered so far are enough to feed around half a million people for two weeks, she said.

Many Gazans were storing the food they are receiving because they are afraid that supplies might again dry up.

“They eat part of it, and they ration and keep some of the supplies for an emergency, because they are not very confident how long the ceasefire will last and what will happen next,” she said.

Separately, Hamas said its so-called Radea security force had “dealt a severe blow” to an armed group in Gaza it accuses of collaborating with Israel.

In a statement, Hamas said its Radea security force carried out an “operation early on Tuesday morning in the southern Gaza Strip, targeting the militia of fugitive Yasser Abu Shabab.”

Hamas added that it arrested “a number of members” of Abu Shabab’s Popular Forces group during the operation and confiscated “military equipment and tools used in their subversive activities.”

The statement added that the operation was carried out “as part of the ongoing deterrence operation against dens of treason.”

Hamas recently established the Radea unit, whose name translates to “deterrence” and whose purpose it says is to “enforce order.”

Clashes broke out early last week in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighbourhood between the Radea force and several armed groups, including that of Yasser Abu Shabab, which Hamas accuses of looting and receiving weapons from Israel.

Abu Shabab’s Popular Forces originally started operating in Gaza’s southern Rafah governorate and was accused of aid looting.

In July, Abu Shabab said his group was able to move freely in zones under Israeli military control and communicated their operations beforehand.

Israeli authorities themselves acknowledged in June that they had armed Palestinian gangs opposed to Hamas, without directly naming the one led by Abu Shabab.

Since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Oct.10, the movement has sought to reassert its presence on the ground and reaffirm its control over the devastated Palestinian enclave.

Last week, Hamas’ official television channel broadcast images of what it said was an execution of eight “collaborators,” shot in front of a crowd in a Gaza City street.

Agencies