ROME (Reuters) – The U.N. food agency said on Friday that “severe fuel shortages” may force it to stop supplying emergency food aid to thousands of displaced families in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip.
“Only two of our contracted bakeries have fuel to produce bread at the moment and tomorrow there might be none,” World Food Programme (WFP) Representative Samer Abdeljaber said.
“This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries,” he added in a statement.
The Rome-based agency said it provides daily bread supplies, on average, for 200,000 people in shelters, but this fell to 150,000 on Wednesday due to the lack of fuel.
It also said that “essential food commodities are rapidly running out in Gaza’s shops”, as they are unable to restock “due to damaged roads, safety concerns and shortage of fuel”.
On Thursday, WFP chief Cindy McCain told Reuters that “insane bureaucracy” at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza was slowing the flow of humanitarian aid to a “dribble”.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by David Holmes)
