Aid groups are warning of an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza as Israel’s blockade on food and aid enters its third month.
As a result, leading aid group World Central Kitchen said in a statement Wednesday that it has been forced to suspend operations and shutter its community kitchens, as it faced empty warehouses and no replenishment of supplies. The group said it had served 133,000 meals per day and baked 80,000 loaves of bread over the past few weeks.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), told NBC News on Wednesday that a famine had “not yet” been declared. But she said an analysis would be released next week by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which sets a scale the United Nations and governments use to assess hunger.
The WFP warned last month that it had run out of its last remaining food stocks for hot meal kitchens in the Gaza Strip. More than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance, enough to feed 1 million people for up to four months, was waiting at aid corridors to be allowed into the enclave, it added.
Palestinian health officials say the Israeli offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led attacks on Israel killed 1,200 people and 250 taken were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
