The World Food Program is running out of food aid seven weeks after the Israeli blockade

The United Nations World Food Program says it has exhausted all its food stocks in Gaza, as Israel prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid for seven weeks.

She warned: “Today, I presented the WFP program, the last of the remaining food stocks to hot meals.” “These kitchens are expected to be completely running out in the coming days.”

Israel cut aid on March 2 and resumed its attack two weeks after the collapse of the ceasefire for two months, saying it was pressing Hamas to release its remaining hostages.

The United Nations says Israel is binding under international law to ensure supplies of 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza. Israel says it is compatible with international law and there is no shortage of aid.

At the end of March, all 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Program in Gaza were forced to close after wheat flour and cooking fuel were run out. The food parcels distributed to families that contain two weeks have been exhausted.

Malnutrition also gets worse, according to the United Nations. Last week, one of her humanitarian partners examined 1,300 children in northern Gaza and identified more than 80 cases of severe malnutrition – an increase of times over previous weeks.

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Coordination (OCA) says there is also a severe shortage of medicines, medical supplies and equipment for hospitals flooded by losses from Israeli bombing, and that a lack of fuel hinders water production and distribution.

The Language Programming Authority said: The current Israeli blockade – the longest closure of Gaza ever – has already exacerbated the fragile markets and diets.

Food prices increased by up to 1,400 % compared to the ceasefire, and the lack of basic commodities has raised serious feeding for the weak population, including children under the age of five years, pregnant women, breasts, and the elderly.

The agency said: “The situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached the collapse point: People are running out of ways to deal, and the fragile gains that were made during the short shooting were revealed,” the agency said.

“The World Food Program urges all parties to give priority to the needs of civilians and allow help to enter Gaza immediately and supports their obligations under international humanitarian law.”

More than 116,000 tons of food aid – enough to feed a million people for up to four months – are placed in the first aid corridors and they are delivered as soon as Israel reopens the Gaza border crossings, according to the agency.

Meanwhile, the Qatari director of WFP, Antoine Renard BBC, told the agency that was trying everything in its power to keep the hot meals kitchens.

“More than 80 % of the population … they were displaced during the war. Since March 18 (when the Israeli attack has been restarted), you have more than 400,000 people who were displaced again,” he said.

“Every time you move, every time you lose assets. So these kitchens are very necessary for people to have a basic meal.”

However, even when it is fully provided, the kitchens reach only half of the population with only 25 % of the daily nutritional needs.

Javin Keeir, director of humanitarian arrival with the Norwegian Refugee Council, told BBC from Central Gaza that once kitchen food stocks run out, they will not be able to provide anything.

He said that people were eating less, and they went to “exchanging a diaper bag for lentils or cooking oil”, or selling what they left to try to reach the money to reach the remaining food supplies.

He added that begging was also unprecedented in Gaza, but people were unable to give others anymore.

“Despair is really, really severe.”

Earlier this week, the Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to criticize the blockade from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, which it described as “inaccurate” and immediately demanded it in a joint statement.

The ministry said that more than 25,000 trucks carry about 450,000 tons of aid entered Gaza during the ceasefire: “Israel is watching the situation on the ground, and there is no shortage of aid in Gaza.”

She also said that Israel was not obligated to allow help because Hamas “kidnapped” supplies “to rebuild the terrorist machine.

Hamas previously denied the theft of aid and the United Nations said it has kept “a very good chain of custody on all the aid it provided.”

Last week, Hamas rejected an Israeli suggestion for the new ceasefire, which included a request to remove his weapon for a six -week stop in hostilities and the release of 10 of 59 hostages still in captivity. The group repeated that it would hand over all the hostages in exchange for ending the war and complete Israeli withdrawal.

The Israeli army launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack across the border on October 7, 2023, where about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken into account.

At least 51,439 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health in the region.