CAIRO: The UN World Food Programme’s Executive Director Cindy McCain issued an urgent plea on Sunday from the Rafah border crossing for safe, expanded humanitarian access to Gaza as humanitarian needs skyrocket and critical food supplies reach dangerously low levels.
Entry points into Gaza have been virtually sealed except through the Rafah border crossing point. While there has been a steady increase in aid entering Gaza, it is nowhere near enough to meet the exponentially growing needs.
Since the beginning of the current escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, the number of internally displaced people has reached 1.4 million, according to UN refugee agency UNCIEF. Children and families have practically no access to water, food and medicines, and the whole Gaza Strip is living with very little or no electricity, the humanitarian agency reports.
“Right now, parents in Gaza do not know whether they can feed their children today and whether they will even survive to see tomorrow. The suffering just meters away is unfathomable standing on this side of the border,” McCain said as she returned from the Rafah border crossing in Egypt.
“Today, I’m making an urgent plea for the millions of people whose lives are being torn apart by this crisis,” she added.
McCain is concluding a two-day visit to Egypt, during which she met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and senior government officials and visited the Egyptian Red Crescent’s humanitarian staging hub in Al-Arish.
“We appreciate all efforts to facilitate a steady flow of humanitarian supplies through its border with Gaza, and the work of the Egyptian Red Crescent is remarkable. We need to continue to work together to get safe and sustained access to Gaza at a scale that aligns with the catastrophic conditions facing families there,” McCain noted.
During her visit, McCain explored opportunities for WFP to leverage its extensive expertise in logistics during emergencies to further strengthen collaboration with partners such as the Egyptian Red Crescent and scale up the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. She applauded the efforts of their volunteers who have worked tirelessly to get lifesaving assistance to their neighbors.
“The crisis in Gaza is not just a local tragedy. It’s a stark reminder that our global food crisis is worsening. Not only does this crisis threaten regional peace and stability, it undermines our collective efforts to combat hunger worldwide,” McCain noted.
