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Israel aid block making Gaza ‘hungriest region on earth with almost no read-to-eat food’: UN office

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said there is almost no ready-to-eat food entering Gaza.

Published on: May 30, 2025, 16:00:08 IST
Reuters
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Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as "the hungriest place on earth".

A mourner reacts next to the body of a Palestinian killed in Israeli strikes, at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, May 30. (REUTERS)
A mourner reacts next to the body of a Palestinian killed in Israeli strikes, at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, May 30. (REUTERS)

Spokesperson Jens Laerke said only 600 of 900 aid trucks had been authorised to get to Israel's border with Gaza, and from there a mixture of bureaucratic and security obstacles made it all but impossible to safely carry aid into the region.

"What we have been able to bring in is flour," he told a regular news conference on Friday. "That's not ready to eat, right? It needs to be cooked... 100% of the population of Gaza is at risk of famine."

Tommaso della Longa, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, added that half of its medical facilities in the region were out of action for lack of fuel or medical equipment.

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