"Excruciating": Hunger worsens in Gaza as aid trucks are unable to deliver resources

"One in four Palestinians in Gaza is starving and the rest face criss levels of hunger"

By Michael La Corte

Deputy Food Editor

Published January 10, 2024 10:00AM (EST)

People on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing watch as a convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid crosses to the Gaza Strip on October 21, 2023. (MOHAMMED ASSAD/AFP via Getty Images)
People on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing watch as a convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid crosses to the Gaza Strip on October 21, 2023. (MOHAMMED ASSAD/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the food supply for hundreds of thousands of people in the Gaza Strip has deteriorated. In a press statement given on Tuesday night while in Tel Aviv, Blinken noted: “For the mother or father trying to find something to feed a hungry child, the passage of another day without food is excruciating.”

His statement comes after a weekend visit to the World Food Program’s regional coordination warehouse in Amman. Matthew Lee of the Associated Press wrote that is “where trucks are being packed with aid to be delivered to Gaza," while also noting that not nearly enough food, water and fuel is reaching the people who need it. 

“Almost the entire population of 2.3 million depends on the trucks coming across the border for their survival,” Lee reports. “One in four Palestinians in Gaza is starving, and the rest face crisis levels of hunger, according to the U.N.” 

Aid groups estimate that Gaza needs about 500 daily truck deliveries of medicine and supplies to adequately address the crisis, however this past week, only 120 trucks entered daily through the two open entry points into Gaza, the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings.


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