Occupied Palestinian Territory – Hunger’s global hotspots – WFP report (excerpts)

Hunger's global hotspots 22 June 2007

Introduction

In regions wracked by violence or submerged by floods, the first emergency is how to deliver enough food as quickly and efficiently as possible. Here are some of the crises counted among WFP's "global hotspots".

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Occupied Palestinian territories

While the delivery of food and essential supplies into Gaza has become problematic, all parties are working to find solutions to ensure humanitarian needs can be met.

Karni (the main commercial terminal) closed on 12 June (it remains closed) and from 12–18 June there was no channel for goods to enter Gaza. However WFP successfully managed to secure agreement with all parties to deliver food through Karem Shalom crossing (in the South of the Gaza Strip).

From 19–24 June, WFP moved 647 metric tons (mt) of food through this crossing over four days (16 percent of the monthly needs of 4,100 mt).

WFP is working on another complementary channel, Sufa, which will enable the organisation to send larger amounts of food into Gaza (over 20 trucks per day). In summary, despite numerous challenges, WFP has managed to establish a strong pipeline and is keeping up the pace on deliveries.

In addition to the deliveries and using pre-positioned stocks, WFP has also managed to distribute 1,916 mt of food (47 percent of the monthly allocation) in the past week.

WFP needs a total of 10,000 mt of food per month to cover the West Bank and Gaza Strip operations until the end of the Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) on 31 August 2007. Some 41 percent of the total tonnage is for Gaza. From 1 September 2007, the tonnage requirement will reduce to around 7,000 mt per month.

WFP increased the Gaza caseload over the past two weeks, in response to the growing needs, and is now feeding sick and injured in 10 hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip.

WFP continues to work with the original partners (including the Ministries of Agriculture and Social Affairs).

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