UN official says food access improving in Gaza, but living conditions remain dire

Access to food in the Gaza Strip has improved significantly since the Oct. 10 ceasefire, but civilians continue to endure extremely harsh living conditions across the besieged enclave, the World Food Program (WFP) said on Thursday.

"It's quite important that from the World Food Program, I can confirm to you that food access has actually significantly improved," Antoine Renard, WFP's Palestine representative, told a virtual news conference.

Saying that the agency's operations are now fully functional on the ground, Renard said: "As we speak, all our distribution networks for the World Food Program are actually up and running." He added that the humanitarian organization has "managed to reach more than 1 million people with, you know, direct food boxes and wheat flour."

He also pointed to improvements, saying: "As the last one really, in terms of improvement, is the fact that with commercial and the flow of aid in terms of food assistance, that have increased."

While updated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) findings are expected to be released soon, Renard said conditions have already shifted. "I can confirm to you that people are having, on average, two meals per day, which is very different," he said.

Despite these gains, Renard stressed that "access to food itself is not enough," warning that "the living conditions continue to be very dire in the Gaza Strip."

He highlighted the lack of safe cooking infrastructure, noting that "there are still, as we speak, practically 90% of any of the cooking facilities that are only trash and wood."

Renard shared an account from the field, saying a woman he met earlier in the day told him "that she lost her sister because she was fetching wood too close to the yellow line."

The "yellow line" is the first withdrawal line outlined in the initial phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. It separates areas still under Israeli military control in the east from those where Palestinians are permitted to move in the west.

"It is worth highlighting the fact that the situation has improved in terms of access to food, but the living conditions in Gaza remain very dire," he said.

Although a ceasefire took effect two months ago, living conditions in Gaza have not improved, as Israel continues to impose strict restrictions on the entry of aid trucks, violating the humanitarian protocol of the agreement.

Israel has killed more than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others in attacks in Gaza since Oct. 2023, which have continued despite the truce.