It has been more than two months since the Israeli government closed off all of Gaza’s border crossings, blocking the entry of lifesaving aid supplies and commercial goods. Stocks of food are running out, causing the prices of goods to increase by at least 400 percent and further deepening the humanitarian crisis and starvation across Gaza.
All bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) were closed more than a month ago, and the organization’s food stocks for families in Gaza are now entirely depleted.
“Everyone in Gaza, including our staff, is facing the same conditions and the same uncertainty of what tomorrow holds,” said Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) Country Director. “Everyone with no exception, is now forced to ration their remaining food stocks, surviving on as little as a loaf bread and a small meal of beans. Pregnant women and children are arriving weak and emaciated at our clinic. We’re seeing rising rates of malnutrition, and heartbreaking images of children queuing up at soup kitchens. Flour, a staple on which everyone depends for survival, is increasingly hard to come by, and many people are now consuming spoiled flour.”
CARE has large stocks of medical supplies, hygiene and dignity kits, tents, food, and women’s clothes stuck outside the borders in warehouses in Egypt, Jordan, and the West Bank. CARE’s primary healthcare center in Deir Al-Balah, which receives hundreds of patients seeking urgent medical care daily, has less than a month’s worth of medical supplies to treat chronic illnesses, infections, and medical emergencies.
“Our CARE teams in Gaza are currently focused on continuing to offer primary healthcare services at our clinic in Deir Al-Balah, as well as providing water trucking to displaced communities in need,” said Veldwijk. “Once our pre-positioned supplies are depleted, we will have to start rationing even further to ensure we can prolong service delivery as much as possible. We will not close the doors of our primary healthcare center, but our range of services will be increasingly limited.”
To bring relief, the Israeli government must end the siege and aid blockade, facilitate unhindered aid access, and lifesaving supplies to reach people in need across Gaza. A ceasefire is the only way to save lives, secure the release of the hostages, and allow humanitarians to respond at scale.
