Corinne Fleischer, WFP director for these three regions, recently visited the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, which she also told reporters.
He said the increase in evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces in Gaza and the deterioration of the situation due to the war meant that the UN Food Aid Agency was able to provide food aid to fewer people in Gaza.
These conditions are also preventing famine from taking root in the Gaza Strip.
Problems faced by the family
Corinne Fleischer said the Arab Spring, the long-running refugee crisis, the economic collapse in some countries and the war in Ukraine have left the people of the Middle East without relief for the past 13 years. Whereas the Ukraine war has had a major impact on food inflation.
“And on top of all this, we now have a regional war, and it has to stop because families can’t cope anymore,” he said.
There is no space left in Gaza
A senior WFP official visited Gaza in mid-July and stayed for a week to assess the situation. About 2 million people are confined to a very small area in Gaza. He also saw people fleeing in chaos following Israel’s evacuation order.
Corinne Fleischer said makeshift camps stretched to the water line on the beach, streets filled with people, while shelters set up by UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, were full. “There is no empty space in Gaza.”
He also visited an UNRWA base where about 13,000 people were staying, with no place to relocate.
Food assistance to bakeries
Corinne Fleischer said that the World Food Program (WFP) delivers food aid, bread and nutrition every month despite the enormous challenges in Gaza and the West Bank.
The United Nations Food Aid Agency is helping to keep trade in the region alive during the war.
But he said humanitarian aid operations in Gaza have become more difficult.
Aid workers have to wait a long time for Israeli authorities to approve their convoy, and even then they have to wait at multiple checkpoints. Roads have already been destroyed and transportation routes will become even more impassable next winter.
Fatigue and displacement in Ukraine
Corinne Fleischer, referring to Ukraine, said that he visited Sumy province a fortnight ago and the situation there was also very bad.
There he met people whose homes had been destroyed and “you could see the weariness of being displaced so many times on their faces.”
World Food Program – WFP left Ukraine six years ago but had to return to provide aid after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. UN food aid teams have provided cash and food aid to nearly two million people in Ukraine, mainly on the front lines.