The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended the movement of its employees across the Gaza Strip until further notice, following an attack on one of its vehicles at an Israeli military checkpoint.
The WFP in a statement on Wednesday said that it is pausing movement of its staff in Gaza after a team returning from an aid delivery mission on Tuesday evening was directly shot at just meters from an Israeli-controlled checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza Bridge.
“Though this is not the first security incident to occur during the war, it is the first time that a WFP vehicle has been directly shot at near a checkpoint, despite securing the necessary clearances,” the statement added.
A photo released by the WFP showed multiple bullet marks in the driver’s side window, with the agency reporting that at least 10 bullets hit the vehicle, yet no one in it was hurt.
“This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza,” Cindy McCain, head of the UN food agency, said on X, adding, “Humanitarians are not a target.”
She called on the Israeli authorities and all involved in the conflict to take swift action to guarantee the safety and security of aid workers in Gaza.
This is totally unacceptable and must change immediately. We have repeatedly asked for a functioning deconfliction system in Gaza, and yet the current arrangements have failed. Humanitarians are #NotATarget. https://t.co/FUWBV8dNk6
— Cindy McCain (@WFPChief) August 28, 2024
In a press briefing on Wednesday, the UN Secretary General’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the WFP aid vehicle that was shot at had been clearly marked, describing the WFP logo as “probably one of the most recognizable in the world” in conflict zones.
Humanitarian efforts in Gaza are facing escalating difficulties, with aid workers encountering significant obstacles in delivering essential assistance, as reported by the World Food Programme.
Continuous evacuation orders are displacing families and disrupting food relief operations, the agency says. Recently, the WFP lost access to its final operational warehouse in the central region of Gaza, and five community kitchens managed by the organization were forced to evacuate.
Over 280 humanitarian workers have been killed since the start of the ongoing Gaza war, which has now entered its 11th month, primarily due to airstrikes. The majority of the victims are Palestinians employed by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recently reported.
In April, nine aid workers from the World Central Kitchen, a US-based non-profit charity, were killed in an Israeli airstrike while en route through Gaza, despite coordinating with Israeli authorities.
After more than 10 months of conflict, the Tel Aviv regime has killed more than 40,500 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, and extensive regions of Gaza are devastated, compounded by a severe blockade restricting access to food, clean water, and medical supplies.
