Gaza City – Desperately needed food aid to northern Gaza has ground to a halt after Israel closed the Zikim Crossing, a vital humanitarian corridor, on September 12. The shutdown, which came just days before Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza City, has forced community kitchens and health clinics to shutter, plunging hundreds of thousands deeper into hunger.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed it has been unable to deliver supplies through Zikim since the closure. Prior to the blockade, half of its aid to Gaza moved through the crossing. “The closure has meant a 50 percent cut in food aid reaching northern Gaza,” the agency said.
According to Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, the number of daily meals provided in northern Gaza has dropped by more than half, from 109,000 before the closure to about 50,000 today. Community kitchens in Gaza City, which once offered free meals, have been forced to shut down.
Families on the brink
“The situation is becoming more difficult,” said Um Zaki, a mother of five who has stayed in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood. She described soaring food prices and widespread scarcity. “People who sell food have left to the south,” she said.
With Israel maintaining its near-total blockade on Gaza, aid groups warn that the deliberate restriction of food supplies is accelerating famine conditions in the enclave.
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