The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday it was temporarily suspending the movement of its vehicles into the Gaza Strip after one of the UN agency's vehicles was shot at at an Israeli checkpoint the day before.
No one was injured in Tuesday's incident. The WFP armored vehicle was clearly marked and had driven along that route many times, with permission from the Israeli military, the statement said.
WFP car under fireReuters
This is the first time that a WFP vehicle has been shot at in front of a checkpoint despite permits and procedures, the agency noted. It added that the incident clearly shows the diminishing capacity of aid agencies to operate in this area engulfed by increasing violence.
Humanitarian organizations are increasingly under attack, and aid is being made impossible by orders issued by the Israeli military to evacuate more areas of the Gaza Strip, the WFP noted. Due to the latest restrictions announced by the military, the World Food Program has lost access to the last operational food warehouse in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
Restrictions on deliveries to the Gaza Strip
The WFP is the world's largest humanitarian organization providing food aid. It provides assistance to about half of the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip. The organization says on its website that because of restrictions on humanitarian deliveries to Gaza, the WFP has recently had to reduce the food rations it distributes.
The war in the Gaza Strip broke out after a terrorist attack by Hamas Israel October 7, 2023, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped. Some are still imprisoned. In the Israeli intervention against Hamas, more than 40.4 thousand Palestinians have died so far. Gaza Strip is in ruins, there is a large-scale humanitarian crisis, and most of the population has become internally displaced.
Main image source: Reuters