Gaza is ‘the hungriest place on earth,’ UN humanitarian agency warns

Gaza is “the hungriest place on Earth,” a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA says, warning that the Palestinian territory’s entire population is now at risk of famine.

At a press briefing in Geneva, spokesman Jens Laerke asserts that Gaza is “the only defined area — a country or defined territory within a country — where you have the entire population at risk of famine; 100 percent of the population at risk of famine.”

Laerke rejects Israel’s assertion that there is no risk of famine in the Palestinian enclave.

He says that since Israel partially eased a total aid blockade on the Strip that it imposed on March 2, 900 trucks of aid have been authorized to enter.

But he says so far, only 600 trucks have been offloaded on the Gaza side of the border, and a smaller number of truckloads have then been picked up, due to multiple security considerations.

“This limited number of truckloads that are coming in… it’s a trickle,” Laerke says, describing it as “drip-feeding food.”

He claims the mission to deliver aid is “in an operational strait-jacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations not only in the world today, but in recent history.”

Alongside the UN aid deliveries, a new aid distribution system has started operations in Gaza in recent days, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The UN and other organizations have withheld backing for GHF, saying it fails to fulfill the principles of humanitarian work, won’t be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.