Ilayda Cakirtekin
June 18, 2025•Update: June 18, 2025
ISTANBUL
The World Food Program (WFP) on Wednesday denounced the killing of starving Gazans while they seek life-saving aid as "completely unacceptable."
"Any violence resulting in starving people being killed or injured while seeking life-saving assistance is completely unacceptable. WFP continues to call for the protection of all civilians and all aid workers delivering life-saving assistance," WFP said in a statement on X.
It noted that the UN agency has only been able to dispatch 9,000 metric tons of food inside the Gaza Strip with a population of 2.1 million hungry people, underlining that "far too many" have died trying to access aid.
"Only a massive scale-up in food distributions can stabilize the situation, calm anxieties and rebuild the trust within communities that more food is coming. Safer and more reliable convoy routes, faster permission approvals, dependable communication services, and the opening of additional border crossings are urgently needed now," it said.
Noting that during a ceasefire earlier this year, WFP enabled the entry of up to 600 trucks per day into Gaza and helped to ease the hunger crisis, it voiced a "readiness" to deliver more aid.
"What is urgently needed now is another ceasefire, so we can reach families with critical food supplies in a consistent, orderly and safe manner -- wherever they are across the Gaza Strip. The time to act is now. Delays cost lives. We must be allowed to safely do our jobs," it underscored.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 55,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
