IDF chief meets World Food Program head over Gaza aid situation

Stav Levaton is a military reporter for The Times of Israel

A handout photo partially blurred by the military shows IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, left, meeting with UN World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain in Tel Aviv on August 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
A handout photo partially blurred by the military shows IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, left, meeting with UN World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain in Tel Aviv on August 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir met today with UN World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain to review ongoing humanitarian aid efforts to the Gaza Strip, the military says.

The meeting, attended by Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Israeli body that coordinates with assistance providers in Gaza, outlined key measures to stabilize the Strip’s humanitarian situation and emphasized ensuring aid reaches civilians directly, not Hamas.

The meeting days after the WFP-linked Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared famine in northern Gaza for the first time — a claim Israel swiftly rejected, accusing the report of relying on “biased and self-interested sources originating from Hamas.”

McCain, who has been an outspoken critic of Israeli aid restrictions, claimed in May 2024 that the Strip was already in “full-blown famine.”

She said last week hunger in the Strip was at “catastrophic” levels.

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