Media Home
UN Web TV
UN PhotoUnifeed
WFP / GAZA FOOD DISTRIBUTION
STORY: WFP / GAZA FOOD DISTRIBUTION
TRT: 01:23
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 OCTOBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE / 23 OCTOBER 2023, JERUSALEM
23 OCTOBER 2023, AL NUSEIRAT GIRLS SCHOOL, GAZA, PALESTINE
1. Wide shot, people walking among destroyed buildings
2. Various shots, truck carrying WFP canned tuna and other humanitarian supplies arrives and unloads at a school where some 4300 displaced people are living
23 OCTOBER 2023, JERUSALEM
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Samer Abdeljaber, Palestine Country Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“The trucks crossing the border are a small window of hope. But they are nowhere near enough to meet the rising needs of the people inside Gaza. We cannot afford to wait. We need to deliver life-saving supplies continuously and at a much larger scale.”
23 OCTOBER 2023, AL NUSEIRAT GIRLS SCHOOL, GAZA, PALESTINE
4. Various shots, WFP canned tuna and other essentials distributed to displaced people
Over the weekend two humanitarian convoys brought the first supplies into Gaza through the Rafah crossing. The first, on Saturday, included three WFP trucks containing food assistance. Sunday’s convoy also brought food supplied by the Egyptian Red Crescent and United Nations.
The arrival of the first trucks in Gaza is a first step towards a food lifeline for the hundreds of thousands of people facing desperate conditions. But much more access and assistance is urgently needed, and the flow of supplies needs to be scaled up radically.
The supplies need to be scaled up radically. For every person that received WFP food assistance, at least six more are in need.
SOUNDBITE (English) Samer Abdeljaber, Palestine Country Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“The trucks crossing the border are a small window of hope. But they are nowhere near enough to meet the rising needs of the people inside Gaza. We cannot afford to wait. We need to deliver life-saving supplies continuously and at a much larger scale.”
The food on the WFP trucks included canned fish and food parcels containing pasta, wheat flour, canned tomato paste, canned beans. The canned fish was already being eaten by families in shelters over the weekend.
Conditions in Gaza are desperate. Food and water are running out, shelters for displaced people are massively overcrowded and, without fuel, there is no electricity. Health services are collapsing. In the West Bank also, conditions are deteriorating, and food is running short.
In Gaza, tens of thousands of people rely on small bakeries to find a loaf of bread to bring back to their families. People risk their lives and queue for hours, but they often go home empty-handed.
Even with these first deliveries, unless many more trucks are coming through regularly, WFP’s food stocks inside Gaza will soon run out, leaving desperate families without any means to sustain themselves. They need to be replenished urgently.
While families inside Gaza go hungry, WFP has about 40 food trucks loaded and ready near the Egyptian border with Gaza. We have more than 930 metric tons of food stockpiled. That’s enough to feed more than 400,000 people for one week.
WFP plans to provide a vital food lifeline to 1.1 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, who desperately need food, water, and essential supplies.
WFP is providing food and cash assistance each day in Palestine – for a total of 555,000 Palestinians, 495,000 in Gaza and 60,000 in the West Bank since the start of the crisis.
On average, around 15,000 people redeem their electronic vouchers every day to buy foods from shops. Overall, close to quarter million (248,000) people in Gaza have redeemed CBT assistance in shops since 7 October.
Around 200,000 people receive WFP fresh bread in shelters every day.
On 21 October, 3 trucks carrying canned tuna and food parcels entered on the first convoy.
WFP maintains a robust monitoring system for its operations in Gaza. The challenges of an emergency can create obstacles to the regular monitoring mechanisms, but WFP is still monitoring the process and results.
As well as the ability to bring food into Gaza and the West Bank, humanitarian organizations—including WFP—need full access to the people in need, wherever they are. In addition, the premises and facilities used to provide aid must be protected.
Many displaced people are sheltering in schools run by UNRWA. WFP works with UNRWA to reach these people. A WFP-contracted bakery – one of the few ones still open in Gaza - was hit last week and put out of action. Bread from the bakery was used to feed thousands of people in shelters.
Download
There is no media available to download.
