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, CARE International warns today.
The prices of goods have increased by at least 400 per cent, further deepening the humanitarian crisis and causing starvation across Gaza.
All bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) were closed more than a month ago, and the organisation’s food stocks for families in Gaza are now entirely depleted.
Jolien Veldwijk, Country Director for CARE International in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), said:
“Everyone in Gaza, including our own staff, are facing the same conditions and the same uncertainty of what tomorrow holds. 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 food, medical supplies, hygiene and dignity kits, tents, and women’s clothes stuck outside the borders in warehouses in Egypt, Jordan and the West Bank. CARE’s primary healthcare centre in Deir Al-Balah, which receives hundreds of patients seeking urgent medical care daily, now has less than a month’s worth of medical supplies to treat chronic illnesses, infections and medical emergencies.
Veldwijk said: “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. 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 centre, but our range of services will be increasingly limited.”
Helen McEachern, CEO CARE of International UK, said:
“The ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza is shameful. The UK must not stand by and watch as people starve – Palestinians are dying from hunger as food rots in warehouses just over the border.
"This cruelty cannot continue and neither should the UK’s support. The UK Government has a duty to stop all arms sales to Israel. How long must Palestinians wait for Governments like the UK to stop fuelling this war?”
Media enquiries
For all media enquiries, please contact Carey Ellis on ellis@careinternational.org
