Food flows into Gaza still far below targets, WFP says

Displaced Palestinians carry boxes of food supplies that entered Gaza in the morning after receiving it from an aid distribution point at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on October 20, 2025. (File/AFP)
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Updated 21 October 2025
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Food flows into Gaza still far below targets, WFP says

  • Food flows into Gaza still far below targets, World Food Programme says
  • “We haven’t had large-scale convoys into Gaza City or to the north of Gaza“

GENEVA: The UN World Food Programme said on Tuesday that supplies into Gaza were ramping up after the US-brokered ceasefire but were still far short of its daily target of 2,000 tons because only two crossings are open, and none to the famine-hit north of the enclave.
Around 750 metric tons of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily, according to the WFP, but this was still well below the scale of needs after two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas that has reduced much of Gaza to ruins.
“To be able to get to this scale-up, we have to use every border crossing point right now,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told a Geneva press briefing.

NOT ALL CROSSINGS OPEN
She said only two of the Israeli-controlled crossings into Gaza were operational — Kerem Shalom in the south and Kissufim in the center.
The ceasefire plan brokered by US President Donald Trump envisages “full aid” being sent into Gaza. An Israeli security official said that humanitarian aid continues to enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing and additional crossings in accordance with the plan, without naming them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice, with its reopening dependent on Hamas handing over bodies of deceased hostages.
The UN children’s agency spokesperson Ricardo Pires said on Tuesday the humanitarian response was still far below the required scale and called for all entry points to reopen.
Some nutrition supplies for children and pregnant women have reached the north via the south, Etefa said, but far short of the level required.
NO ACCESS TO ROAD RUNNING LENGTH OF GAZA
“We haven’t had large-scale convoys into Gaza City or to the north of Gaza,” she said, adding that WFP had not been granted permission to use the main north-south Salah Al-Din road.
Food supplies delivered so far are enough to feed around half a million people for two weeks, she said.
Many Gazans were storing the food they are receiving because they are afraid that supplies might again dry up.
“They eat part of it, and they ration and keep some of the supplies for an emergency, because they are not very confident how long the ceasefire will last and what will happen next,” she said.


Israeli soldiers kill 55-year-old Palestinian and teenager in West Bank

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Israeli soldiers kill 55-year-old Palestinian and teenager in West Bank

  • Israeli military says soldiers opened fire after car accelerated toward them
  • Security official says the car was driven by a Palestinian teenager

RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager who was driving a car toward them as well as a Palestinian bystander in the West Bank on Saturday, according to an Israeli security official.
The military said that an “uninvolved person” was hit in addition to the driver of the car who had “accelerated” toward soldiers at a checkpoint in West Bank city of Hebron.
In an earlier statement, the military said two “terrorists” were killed, before later clarifying that only one person was involved.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 17-year-old was driving the car and a 55-year-old was the bystander.
Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported that 55-year-old Ziad Naim Abu Dawood, a municipal street cleaner, was killed while working. It said another Palestinian was killed but did not report the circumstances that led the soldiers to open fire.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the second Palestinian as 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Al-Rajabi.
The military did not report any injuries to the soldiers.
The motive for the 17-year-old’s actions was not immediately clear, and no militant group claimed responsibility.
Since January, 51 Palestinian minors, aged under 18, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Violence has surged this year in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.
Palestinians have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them deadly.