UN agency says it has been able to double aid operations in north Gaza with new crossings

The UN’s World Food Program says the opening of new land routes has allowed it to double its aid operations in northern Gaza, where it says a famine is underway.

But Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the UN agency, says that Israel’s incursion into the southern city of Rafah was a “significant setback” that raises fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Israel opened a second crossing into the north and took other steps to facilitate aid under heavy pressure from the United States after an Israeli strike killed seven workers with the World Central Kitchen charity last month.

Etefa says the situation in the north has improved, with four bakeries now operating to provide essential bread, but that prices remain high in local markets.

“To roll back six months of near starvation conditions and avert a famine requires steady flows of food supplies, every day, every week, through multiple entry points,” she says.