Gaza: Efforts to deliver food aid to stricken north ‘largely unsuccessful’
The emergency relief agency said that a 14-truck food convoy – the first by WFP since it paused deliveries to northern Gaza on 20 February – was turned back by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint .
“Even though today’s convoy did not make it to the north to provide food to the people who are starving, WFP continues to explore every possible means to do so,” said Carl Skau, WFP Deputy Executive Director.
After being turned away, the convoy was rerouted and then stopped by a large crowd of desperate people who looted the food, taking around 200 tonnes from the trucks.
Roads ‘the only option’
The agency also stressed that road routes are the only option to transport large quantities of food needed to avert families in northern Gaza.
Earlier on Tuesday, with the help of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, six tonnes of WFP food supplies for about 20,000 people were dropped for civilians surviving in the north.
“Airdrops are a last resort and will not avert famine,”Mr. I’m stressed.
“We need entry points to northern Gaza that will allow us to deliver enough food for