Hundreds of thousands in Gaza face 'malnutrition and famine' without unlimited access to aid, UN warns
5 June 2025, 07:57
A generation of children in Gaza face "malnutrition, catastrophic food insecurity and famine" unless more humanitarian aid enters the Strip without restrictions, the UN's aid chief has said.
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Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN's World Food Programme, has called on Israel to "get in and get in at scale" aid deliveries without limits.
"We can't wait for this.
"We need safe, unfettered, clear access all the way in and we're not getting that right now," she said.
She stressed that people in Gaza are "starving, they're hungry, they're doing what they can do to feed their families".
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"It's very, very important that people realise that the only way to stave off malnutrition, catastrophic food insecurity and, of course, famine would be by complete and total access for organisations like mine," she added.
Right now, she said there are "over 500,000 people within Gaza that are catastrophically food insecure."
"I try and put myself in their situation: I'm a mother and grandmother, and I cannot imagine having my children ask me for food and me not being able to give it them.
"I don't know what that does to a human spirit but I don't want to see any more of that as a humanitarian aid worker," she told Sky News.
It comes after aid centres on the Gaza strip closed for "renovations" and "improvements" on Wednesday, with Israel warning roads leading to the distribution hubs will be "considered combat zones".
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said following the announcement that "travel is prohibited" in Gaza "via the roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones".
The move came after at string of attacks on Palestinians at aid centres in the Gaza Strip, leaving multiple dead.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution of aid has been marred by chaos in recent days, and multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the delivery sites.
Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan called the deaths in Gaza "entirely avoidable", adding: "Food is being used as a weapon of war. There is clear evidence being detailed of war crimes."
The U.N. system has struggled to bring in aid after Israel slightly eased its total blockade of the territory last month.
Those groups say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.
Experts have warned that the territory is at risk of full-blown famine if more aid is not brought in.
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