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go through Michelle NicholsReuters
A World Food Programme (WFP) facility stands on the coast of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, surrounded by tents housing displaced Palestinians, on May 10, 2024.
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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday suspended the movement of its staff in the Gaza Strip, saying at least 10 bullets hit a clearly marked vehicle as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint.
The World Food Program said in a statement that a convoy of two armored vehicles “repeatedly sought permission from Israeli authorities to approach” the Wadi Gaza Bridge checkpoint on Tuesday evening. Bullets hit one of the vehicles, but no one inside was injured.
“While this is not the first security incident during the war, it is the first time a WFP vehicle has come under direct fire near a checkpoint despite having the necessary permission,” the WFP said.
The report said the vehicle was only “a few meters” from an Israeli checkpoint when it was hit.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that it was reviewing the incident.
“The State of Israel is committed to strengthening coordination and security with humanitarian organizations to ensure the effective delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.
Aid and humanitarian organizations have come under attack before during the war, with three Israeli airstrikes targeting aid convoys passing through Gaza in April. Seven World Central Kitchen staff members died.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that aid operations in Gaza were “severely restricted by hostilities, insecurity and large-scale evacuation orders affecting aid delivery routes and facilities.”
The UN Security Council will hold a meeting on Thursday on the humanitarian situation in Gaza at the request of the UK and Switzerland. The UK Mission to the UN said in a statement on X: “The United Nations has warned that aid operations and workers in Gaza are at risk, just as an urgent vaccination campaign is needed to stop an outbreak of polio.”
The United Nations is preparing to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza. The World Health Organization says a 10-month-old baby in Gaza has been paralyzed by type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the region in 25 years.
On Oct. 7, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics, triggering the latest bloodshed in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s subsequent offensive on Hamas-controlled areas killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million residents, triggered a famine crisis and led to genocide charges in international courts, which Israel denies, according to the local health ministry.
The United Nations has long complained about obstacles to delivering aid to Gaza during the war and the “total lawlessness” in the region that has plagued its distribution.
– Reuters
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