Dozens of Palestinian children eagerly lined up for a meal in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, as aid workers unloaded huge saucepans of stew and rice from parked trucks under the bright sun. <\/p>\n
The World Central Kitchen, a US-based non-profit that focuses on fighting hunger around the world, resumed work in Gaza this week, after a hiatus following a series of Israeli military strikes that killed seven staffers in April and drew the world\u2019s condemnation. Israeli forces have previously taken responsibility for the deaths, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offering rare public acknowledgment and a promise to investigate the \u201ctragic incident.\u201d <\/p>\n
World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres wrote on Wednesday that returning to Gaza after losing his staff was not easy, but that the organization could not \u201cstand by\u201d as people in Gaza suffered. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision\u2026 to restart feeding in Gaza is both the hardest and the simplest one we could make,\u201d Andres wrote on X. \u201cHard, because only a month has passed since seven of our WCK colleagues were killed in an IDF attack. These humanitarian heroes risked everything to feed people they did not know and would never meet. And yet simple, because the need is so great. We cannot stand by while so many people are so desperate for the essentials of life.\u201d <\/p>\n
Human rights agencies have long warned of a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza under Israel\u2019s military\u2019s seven-month assault, launched in response to the Hamas-led October 7 terror attacks. More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza as of May 1, according to the local ministry of health. <\/p>\n
Over the course of the war, more than 1.9 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, according to the UN, with many sheltering in crammed tent camps that cannot offer enough access to sanitation or food. <\/p>\n
The entire population of more than 2.2 million people is now at risk of famine, and at least 30 children have already died of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza, according to the health ministry. <\/p>\n
\u201cSince yesterday after we resumed working, we could see people\u2019s desperation. People have no food, and we\u2019ve all been displaced,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201c[The World Central Kitchen\u2019s] food makes people feel that they are at home. It is decent food, it is clean. They also treat people well.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI say thank you and may God protect them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that Israel\u2019s strict limitations on passage into Gaza is diminishing critical supplies and drastically hindering relief efforts within the Palestinian territory. <\/p>\n
In March, the United Nations\u2019 human rights chief, Volker T\u00fcrk, warned Israel\u2019s sustained restrictions on aid into Gaza may amount to the war crime of starvation. <\/p>\n
Israel says there is \u201cno limit\u201d on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime on aid trucks has meant that only a tiny fraction of the amount of food and other supplies that used to enter Gaza daily before the war is getting in now. <\/p>\n
Shortly after the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers in April, Israeli officials agreed to open the Erez border crossing into northern Gaza to allow aid deliveries. Food shortages have been the worst there after Israel concentrated its military offensive there in the early days of the war. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described the opening of Erez as \u201cessential\u201d to \u201cincrease the volume of humanitarian aid into Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n
But efforts to increase aid have also run into repeated trouble. At least 48 aid trucks were blocked on Wednesday after Israeli settlers attacked a aid convoy en route to Gaza via the southern Kerem Shalom crossing, according to Jordanian authorities. <\/p>\n
The US State Department also said Thursday that a delivery of aid that passed through Erez crossing earlier in the week had been temporarily intercepted by Hamas, which controls the isolated enclave, before being retrieved by the United Nations. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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