The United Nations suspends food distribution in Rafah due to lack of supplies
The US has declared that it has suspended food distribution due to a lack of supplies and insecurity in Rafah. It confirmed that no aid trucks entered during the past two days via a floating dock established by the US to deliver sea aid.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced the suspension of food distribution in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip due to supply problems and insecurity. UNRWA said in a post on the X platform. The distribution of food supplies in Rafah is currently suspended due to a lack of supplies and insecurity.
The agency’s distribution centre, as well as the World Food Program’s centre in Rafah, are no longer accessible due to ongoing Israeli military operations, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The United Nations has not determined how many people have remained in Rafah since the Israeli army began its intense offensive there two weeks ago. However, it appears that several hundred thousand people are still there.
Food is also running out in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing Rafah have sought shelter amid a chaotic departure, setting up new camps or congregating in areas already devastated by previous Israeli attacks, the World Food Program said.
Humanitarian operations in Gaza are on the verge of collapse,” Abeer Atifa, spokeswoman for the United Nations World Food Programme, warned. She added that if the entry of food and other supplies into Gaza did not resume “in massive quantities, famine-like conditions would spread.”
The Israeli attack in and around Rafah forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee amid severe criticism from the international community.
This warning came as Israel seeks to contain the repercussions of the prosecutor’s request to the world’s highest war crimes court to issue arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders, a move supported by three European countries, including main ally France.
The ICC prosecutor cited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “using starvation as a means of war,” a charge they and other Israeli officials angrily deny.
The public prosecutor charged three Hamas leaders with war crimes in connection with the killing of civilians in the October 7 attack. The United Nations says about 1.1 million people in Gaza – nearly half the population – face catastrophic levels of hunger and that the region is on the brink of famine.
The humanitarian supply crisis has worsened over the past two weeks since Israel launched its incursion into Rafah on May 6 and pledged to eliminate Hamas fighters. It is mentioned that Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist militant group, is classified as a terrorist organisation by Germany, the European Union, the United States and other countries.
The forces took control of the Rafah crossing leading to Egypt, which has remained closed since then. The United Nations says that since May 10, only thirty trucks have been able to reach Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing near Israel because the fighting makes it difficult for aid workers to get them.
