The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Cindy McCain, has warned that two million people in Gaza are suffering from “acute hunger” as humanitarian aid struggles to reach those in need.
In a post on X, McCain highlighted the dire situation, noting that last month only one-third of trucks carrying WFP aid managed to enter the besieged enclave.
The World Food Program said it is suspending deliveries of aid in Gaza after one of its humanitarian teams was hit by gunfire this week as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint.
In a statement, the United Nations agency said none of its employees were injured during the shooting on Tuesday night, which occurred after a convoy of its trucks had delivered assistance to central Gaza. The agency said one of its vehicles had been hit by 10 bullets — five on the driver’s side — a few yards from the Israeli security post at the Wadi Gaza bridge.
(06.03.2024)
Before the conflict began in October, Gaza relied on 500 trucks entering daily. Aid can currently be delivered into southern Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt and Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel.
“Gaza has become a death zone,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General told correspondents at a press briefing in Geneva.
“Much of the territory has been destroyed. More than 29,000 people are dead; many more are missing, presumed dead; and many, many more are injured,” he added.
Across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, severe malnutrition has shot up dramatically since the start of the war on 7 October, from under one per cent of the population, to over 15 per cent in some areas.
“This figure will rise the longer the war goes on and supplies [are] interrupted,” Tedros said, expressing deep concern that agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) are unable to access the north.
Our decision to pause deliveries to the north has not been taken lightly. The safety and security to deliver critical food aid – and for the people receiving it – must be ensured.
The UN has announced the suspension of food aid in northern Gaza, after warning that the region is plagued by „chaos and violence“.
The World Food Programme (WFP) resumed deliveries on Sunday after a three-week halt but said its convoy „faced complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order.“
@WFP is on the front lines, working to provide essential food assistance but the situation is beyond dire. We urgently need unimpeded access and, above all, a ceasefire
Article 7
1. There are established as principal organs of the United Nations: a General Assembly, a Security Council, an Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice and a Secretariat.
(…)
Article 94
1. Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice in any case to which it is a party.
2. If any party to a case fails to perform the obligations incumbent upon it under a judgment rendered by the Court, the other party may have recourse to the Security Council, which may, if it deems necessary, make recommendations or decide upon measures to be taken to give effect to the judgment.
(…)
Article 96
– The General Assembly or the Security Council may request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on any legal question.
– Other organs of the United Nations and specialized agencies, which may at any time be so authorized by the General Assembly, may also request advisory opinions of the Court on legal questions arising within the scope of their activities.
Signatories:
– Mr. Martin Griffiths, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
– Ms. Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro, Secretary General, CARE International
. Ms. Jane Backhurst, Chair of ICVA Board (Christian Aid)
– Mr. Jamie Munn, Executive Director, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)
– Ms. Anne Goddard, Chief Executive Officer and President a.i., InterAction
– Ms. Amy E. Pope, Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
– Ms. Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Corps
– Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
– Ms. Janti Soeripto, President and Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children
– Ms. Paula Gaviria Betancur, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (SR on HR of IDPs)
– Mr. Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
– Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
– Mr. Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
– Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat)
– Ms. Catherine Russell, Executive Director, United Nations Children‘s Fund (UNICEF)
– Ms. Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Women
– Ms. Cindy McCain, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP)
– Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)
“Right now, parents in Gaza do not know whether they can feed their children today and whether they will even survive to see tomorrow. The suffering just meters away is unfathomable standing on this side of the border,” said Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP). (…)
The WFP head is concluding a two-day visit to Egypt, during which she met with top Government officials, including President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and visited the Egyptian Red Crescent’s humanitarian staging hub in Al Arish.
It seems the UNFSS is now dominated by corporate front groups and corporate-driven platforms, including the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the International Agri-Food Network, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the EAT Forum as well as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation. The President of AGRA, Agnes Kalibata, was even appointed as UN Special Envoy for the summit.
Professor Michel Chossudovsky has looked at who could ultimately benefit from current events and concludes that certain pharmaceutical companies could be (are already) major beneficiaries as they receive lavish funding to develop vaccines. He asks whether we can trust the main actors behind what could amount to a multibillion dollar global (compulsory) vaccination (surveillance) project.
Belgrave hatte im Mai als Mitglied von WFP-Teams Nordkorea besucht, um den Stand der Nahrungsknappheit zu untersuchen. WFP-Teams aus Experten aus Frankreich, Kanada, China, Deutschland, Irland, Italien, Moldau und Spanien hatten mit einer Genehmigung nordkoreanischer Behörden in neun Provinzen die Ernährungslage unter die Lupe genommen.
In May 2019, World Food Programme (WFP) teams visited nine of the DPRK’s provinces to assess the food security situation after the 2018 harvest was the worst in 10 years. This is an insider’s view of this mission.
It marks the first time for South Korea to provide rice to North Korea since 2010, when it sent 5,000 tons to support its efforts to recover from flood damage.