World Central Kitchen says it is forced to halt aid operations in Gaza

File: A local volunteer of the World Central Kitchen carries a cooking pot to be used to cook meals for to needy Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 3, 2024. (AFP)
File: A local volunteer of the World Central Kitchen carries a cooking pot to be used to cook meals for to needy Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 3, 2024. (AFP)

The US-based World Central Kitchen charity says it has halted work in the Gaza Strip, saying it has run out of supplies and has been prevented by Israel from bringing in aid.

“After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza,” it says on Wednesday in a post on X.

Israel has faced growing international pressure to lift an aid blockade that it imposed in March after the collapse of a ceasefire deal. Israel has accused agencies, including the United Nations, of allowing large quantities of aid to fall into the hands of Hamas, which seizes supplies intended for civilians for its own forces.

World Central Kitchen was founded by celebrity chef José Andrés. An April 2024 Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy killed seven aid workers, for which the IDF apologized.

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