NEW YORK: Corinne Fleischer, WFP Director for Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, has briefed reporters on her recent visits to the Gaza Strip, saying humanitarian operations have become ever more difficult to carry out in Gaza.

Aid workers spend ‘endless hours’ waiting for movement authorizations, and then have to wait again at holding points and checkpoints. Roads are already destroyed, and the upcoming winter season will make them even more impassable, she explained.

Fleischer said that since she left Gaza, humanitarians have seen more Israeli evacuation orders and the massive deterioration of the security environment, which have affected their activities.

‘WFP lost access to its third warehouse and last operational warehouse in Gaza in the Middle Area under evacuation order. We lost five WFP-supported community kitchens that had to be evacuated, and we lost close to 20 distribution points across the Strip,’ she said.

‘While we do manage to bring in food, more or less, [it’s] not enough, but
we can’t distribute it right now. So, we reached less people last month than what we usually do.’

The evacuation orders also forced WFP to flee its main operational centre in Gaza under short notice – the third time since the conflict began.

Source: Emirates News Agency