UN food agency chief describes absolutely brutal' situation in Gaza
Earlier, we reported that the UN has cut food assistance to 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza and 200,000 in the occupied West Bank because of a serious funding shortage.
Carl Skau, acting head of the World Food Programme (WFP), who just visited both Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters in a video briefing that life in Gaza remains "absolutely brutal" and dangerous, with UN teams recording about 50 Israeli attacks a day over the past week.
Skau said WFP will now prioritise food to those most in need: the sick, mothers and children at risk of malnutrition, and people closest to the "Yellow Line" dividing where Israeli forces remain.
Adding to the difficulties, the Israeli military last week halted the shipment of commercial goods, including food, into Gaza.
In the West Bank, Skau said that escalating pogroms by Israeli settlers have turned what used to be a human rights and protection crisis "into a hunger crisis, because food insecurity has more than doubled in the last three years".
He said almost one million Palestinians there now need food assistance.
During his visit, Skau said he saw burned-down olive fields, camps and villages. "The settler attacks over only these first two weeks of harvest have already surpassed the whole of last year in terms of number of attacks," he said.
