UN food agency pauses deliveries to the north of Gaza

Source: Reuters

UN food agency pauses deliveries to the north of Gaza

Reuters
February 20, 2024 7:56 AM EST Updated 19 hours ago

ROME, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The World Food Programme said on Tuesday it was pausing deliveries of food aid to northern Gaza until conditions in the Palestinian enclave allow for safe distribution.

"The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger," the Rome-based WFP, the United Nations' food agency, said in a statement.

Three U.N. agencies - the WFP, the World Health Organization and children's agency UNICEF - said on Monday food and safe water were "incredibly scarce and diseases are rife...resulting in a surge of acute malnutrition" in Gaza more than four months into the Israel-Hamas war.

The food crisis is particularly serious in the north, where in January one in six children under the age of two were reported as acutely malnourished, and where "the situation is likely to be even graver today", the agencies said.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-food-agency-pauses-deliveries-north-gaza-2024-02-20/

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