LONDON: Civilians in Gaza are becoming more desperate by the hour as food shortages and hunger grow in the enclave amid an Israeli bombing campaign against Hamas, the UN World Food Programme warned on Sunday.

Thousands of civilians stormed a UN-run warehouse in Gaza, where the WFP is storing food commodities.

Sunday morning’s events followed a 24-hour communication blackout and persistent access challenges that brought all WFP operations to a halt, leaving staff and partners incommunicado.

The warehouse was used to store some of the humanitarian supplies from trucks coming from Egypt ahead of distribution to displaced families.

The warehouse contained some 80 tons of mixed food commodities, mainly canned food, wheat flour and sunflower oil.

“This is a sign of people losing hope and becoming more desperate by the minute. They are hungry, isolated, and have been suffering violence and immense distress for three weeks,” said Samer Abdeljaber, WFP representative and country director in Palestine.

“We need a humanitarian pause to be able to reach the people in need with food, water and basic necessities, safely and effectively. Much more access is urgently needed, and the trickle of supplies needs to become a flow.”

Fuel shortages and loss of connectivity are also threatening to bring humanitarian operations to a halt, WFP warned. Without additional fuel supplies, bakeries working with WFP in the enclave are no longer operational and transporters cannot deliver food where it is needed.

WFP plans to provide food to over 1 million people who are going hungry now and requires a steady supply of food with at least 40 WFP trucks able to cross daily into Gaza in order to meet the escalating needs. 

So far, emergency food and cash assistance has reached over 635,200 people in both Gaza and the West Bank.