FOOD, SHELTER, FUEL NEEDED
Abeer Etefa, senior spokesperson for WFP, described the situation as a “race against time”.
“We need full access. We need everything to be moving fast,” she said. “The winter months are coming. People are still suffering from hunger, and the needs are overwhelming.”
Since the ceasefire, the agency has brought in 20,000 metric tons of food assistance, roughly half the amount needed to meet people’s needs, and has opened 44 out of a targeted 145 distribution sites, she said.
The variety of food needed to ward off malnutrition is also lacking, she added.
“The majority of households that we’ve spoken to are only consuming cereals, pulses, dry food rations, which people cannot survive on for a long time. Meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits are being consumed extremely rarely,” she said.
A continuing lack of fuel, including cooking gas, is also hampering nutrition efforts, and over 60 per cent of Gazans are cooking using burning waste, said OCHA, adding to health risks.
With winter approaching, Gazans need shelter. Tents are wearing thin. Buildings that survived the military onslaught are often open to the weather or unstable and dangerous.
“We’re coming into winter soon – rainwater and possible floods, as well as potential diseases because of the hundreds of tons of garbage near populated areas,” said Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian agencies that liaise with the UN.
He said only 25-30 per cent of the amount of aid expected into Gaza had entered so far.
“The living conditions are unimaginable,” said Shaina Low, spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which leads a group of agencies working on a lack of shelter in Gaza.
The NRC estimates that 1.5 million people need shelter in Gaza, but large volumes of tents, tarpaulins and related aid are still waiting to come in, awaiting Israeli approvals, Low said.
Source: CNA
