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STORY: WFP / GAZA BRINK OF FAMINE
TRT: 3:52
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 4 – 15 JANUARY 2024, RAFAH / JERUSALEM
11 JANUARY 2024, RAFAH, GAZA
1. Various shots, displaced people salvaging belongings in destroyed homes, living in camps and on the side of the road
Everyone in Gaza is hungry and each day is a desperate search for food. People often go the entire day and night without eating. Adults go hungry so children can eat. The latest Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC) report found devastating levels of food insecurity in Gaza and confirmed that the entire population of Gaza – roughly 2.2 million people – are in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity. The risk of famine increases each day as the conflict limits the delivery of life saving humanitarian assistance to people in need.
2. Various shots, WFP Hot Meals being prepared and distributed to displaced people
WFP is working through partnerships to support community-run kitchens that provide hot meals every day. In December, an estimated 93,000 people received meals in 91 locations across Gaza. WFP has been providing food inside Gaza every day since 7 October and reached more than 1.4million people.
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Youssef Abu Ishaq:
“My house was bombed, and I fled here without bringing anything with me, not even money. We need food, bread, and blankets. It's winter, and I came here without anything, not even spare clothes.”
4. Various shots, WFP Hot Meals being prepared and distributed to displaced people
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nevin Kodeih:
“My son's trousers are torn, and I cannot afford to buy him new ones. I go to the market to buy trousers, and I find the price to be 50 or 60 shekels, which I cannot afford. As for food, a bag of flour costs 200 shekels, which I cannot buy. Some people have money and can make purchases, but where will I get the money?”
6. Various shots, WFP Hot Meals being prepared and distributed to displaced people
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nevin Kodeih:
“For several days now, food has been distributed to us, saving me the trouble of searching for flour. This is a good thing for me.”
04 JANUARY 2024, RAFAH, GAZA
8. Various shots, bread Production in Recently Re-opened Bakery
To support existing systems and the local economy, WFP is also helping bakeries start production again by providing them with wheat flour and other necessary resources to operate. After 50 days of being shut down, nine bakeries in Deir El Balah and Rafah are now producing bread again, at a subsidized price, for people in Gaza.
15 JANUARY 2024, JERUSALEM
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Samer Abdeljaber, WFP Palestine Country Director:
“WFP has been working with partners and communities to deliver food and communities as quickly as possible well and as many people as possible and also supporting local shops, bakeries to operate. So far we have reached around 1.4 million people with food but everyone in Gaza is hungry. We're exploring all possible solutions but none are sufficient in the face of obstacles. There are people starvng in areas and we are not able to give basic food for. The needs are rising faster than we are able to respond we need to be able to bring in more supplies and we need safe access to reach people everywhere in Gaza not just those who are close to the borders. We need the long lasting ceasefire to stop the suffering”
11 JANUARY 2024, RAFAH, GAZA
10. Various shots, WFP Food Parcels Distribution
WFP food parcels include canned pulses, canned meat, and high-calorie foods such as Halawa and date bars.
Everyone in Gaza is hungry and each day is a desperate search for food. People often go the entire day and night without eating. Adults go hungry so children can eat.
According to the latest data, the risk of famine increases each day as the conflict limits the delivery of life saving humanitarian assistance to people in need.
The latest Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC) report (21/12) finds devastating levels of food insecurity in Gaza. It confirms that the entire population of Gaza – roughly 2.2 million people – are in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity (phases 3-5).
A quarter of Gaza’s population – more than half a million people – are grappling with catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Classified as living in the most extreme stage of hunger (IPC5), these people are starving. The number of people in this category is four times higher in Gaza than in the rest of the world combined (129,000).
Severe hunger weakens people’s immune systems and makes them vulnerable to disease. Infectious diseases are already rampant in the overcrowded shelters.
Children, especially young ones, are especially at risk from disease and malnutrition. With families constantly on the move, normal routines for feeding babies are disrupted and the food that is available is often not suitable for babies.
The severe shortage of water makes things worse so that, as children get weaker, a bout of diarrhoea could become fatal. Meanwhile, pregnant women are not getting enough to eat and this will impact the health of their babies when they’re born.
WFP can reach only a fraction of the people in desperate need every day and in very limited locations. WFP needs to be able to reach hungry people wherever they are.
Despite the constraints, WFP is finding new ways of operating, new approaches and new partners so that food gets to at least some of those who need it.
• WFP has been providing food inside Gaza every day since 7 October and reached more than 1.4million people.
• We are expanding our network of local partners so we can do distributions in their sites. For example, recently there was a distribution to 10,000 families in a Wedding Hall. We are also using local shops as distribution points to make it easier for people to collect their assistance.
• To support existing systems and the local economy, WFP is also helping bakeries get back on their feet by providing them with wheat flour and other necessary resources to operate. After 50 days of being shut down, nine bakeries in Deir El Balah and Rafah are now producing bread again, at a subsidized price, for people in Gaza.
• WFP is also working through partnerships to support community-run kitchens that provide hot meals every day. In December, an estimated 93,000 people received meals in 91 locations across Gaza. Meanwhile, we continue to reach people in around 100 UN shelters in Rafah, Deir El Balah and Khan Younis.
• WFP has now started including special nutrition supplements (LNS) for pregnant/breastfeeding women and children under 2 to prevent malnutrition and boost the immune system. No cooking is required.
What WFP and other humanitarian agencies are achieving now is simply not enough. The only way to halt the rapid slide into disease, malnutrition, starvation and death is to roll out a massive, multi-agency humanitarian operation in conditions where access is secure and safe. This can only happen if there is a lasting ceasefire.
• To avert utter catastrophe, all kinds of assistance must be brought in at the scale of the need and through all viable routes. We must provide safe and nutritious food to all civilians in need - wherever they are – and restore health and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) services. This requires a cross sector humanitarian approach.
• At present the action of WFP and other humanitarian organizations is seriously constrained by having to use only two border crossings and the multi-layered vetting process for the trucks and convoys allowed into Gaza.
• The flow of supplies into Gaza over the past 10 weeks is what would normally have crossed into Gaza in a period of 10 days. Under current border crossing restrictions, WFP will be able to fulfil only 20 percent of its monthly requirements.
• Aid organizations also need access to a working port close to the Gaza Strip and border
crossing points into the north. Access to Ashdod port, roughly 40 km to the north, would make a huge difference in terms of moving goods, as 90 percent of WFP’s procurement to Gaza comes from Turkiye.
• WFP has several times called for a halt in hostilities so that WFP and other agencies can do their work and begin to turn the tide.
