"World Food Program": Delivering aid by land is the only solution in Gaza.. "Half a million are facing famine"

The Executive Director of the World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, warned that the humanitarian situation in the besieged Gaza Strip has reached a critical stage, with half a million people starving. She emphasized that the only solution to deliver food aid is through land crossings, not through aerial drops.

McCain noted in her statement that her experience spanning over 50 years in conducting aerial drops during humanitarian crises makes her aware of when these operations are effective and when they are not the appropriate option.

She explained that the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reveals that more than 500,000 people, nearly a quarter of Gaza's population, are living in conditions resembling famine, while the rest of the population faces emergency levels of food insecurity.

McCain also pointed out that the ongoing conflict, the collapse of essential services, and severe restrictions on the delivery and distribution of aid have pushed the sector into catastrophic conditions. She confirmed that more than 320,000 children, all under the age of five, are at risk of acute malnutrition.

She indicated that basic food and health services have collapsed, depriving infants of safe water, breast milk substitutes, and therapeutic foods, with more than a third of the population going entire days without eating any food.

McCain asserted that a ceasefire has become an urgent necessity, stressing that the quantities of food that have entered the sector so far represent only a tiny fraction of what more than two million people need to survive.

She clarified that the programme has the food supplies, field personnel, and proven systems for a large-scale response, with more than 170,000 tons of food either in the area or on its way there, which is enough to feed Gaza's population for nearly three months.

McCain called on all parties and the international community to ensure the immediate and safe entry of life-saving food, noting that the Israeli occupation authorities have closed all crossings leading to the Gaza Strip since March 2 of last year, preventing any humanitarian aid from entering.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the ongoing Israeli genocide has resulted in the martyrdom of 61,722 Palestinians and the injury of 154,525 others, most of whom are children and women, in addition to more than 9,000 missing and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Famine has also caused the deaths of 235 people so far, including 106 children, amid the absence of any signs of improvement in the grim humanitarian situation.