The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported yesterday that the food situation in Gaza has rapidly become critical. Since May 6, the day that Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah gate, only six trucks carrying relief supplies have entered Gaza, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma told Middle East Eye. The “very minimum” number of trucks needed is 500 per day, carrying a “combination of fuel, aid supplies and commercial supplies,” Touma said. Within the same time frame, 157,000 liters of fuel has come into Gaza. Touma said that 300,000 liters were needed every day. With so little coming in, food supplies are dwindling and prices soaring. As a “full-blown famine” devastates northern Gaza, sources in central and southern Gaza described a “miserable” situation that could turn into a “real crisis” in a matter of days.
Goods have disappeared from the markets. Potatoes and other vegetables have not been available for a week, MEE adds. “A few vegetables, such as tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and garlic, and a few legumes, such as lentils, beans and fava beans are all that’s left,” Eman Mhmd, a math teacher in Deir al-Balah, told Middle East Eye. “There’s no chicken, no eggs, no tissues—many other things have gone.”
