Nearly 50 million people in the Middle East, Northern Africa and Eastern Europe are not getting enough to eat, or double the number from before the Arab Spring over a decade ago, a senior official with the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday in New York.
Corinne Fleischer, WFP Director for the three regions, briefed reporters on her recent visits to the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.
An increase in evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military along with a "massive deterioration" in security caused the UN agency to reach fewer people in Gaza in August, though she did not provide figures.
These conditions are also hampering efforts to prevent famine from taking root in the enclave.
Families struggle to cope
Ms. Fleischer said people in the Middle East have not had a break over the past 13 years due to the Arab Spring, protracted refugee crises, the near economic collapse of some countries, and the war in Ukraine, which continues to have a profound impact on food inflation.
"And now, of course, on top of this, we are bracing for a regional war, and this has to stop because families really can't cope," she said.
'No empty space left'
The WFP official travelled to Gaza at the end of July and spent a week in the Strip, where some two million Palestinians are crammed into ever-decreasing space. She witnessed people fleeing in the wake of Israeli evacuation orders.
"There is simply no empty space left in Gaza," she said, noting that makeshift camps are stacked on the beach up to the shoreline, roads are filled with people, while shelters run by the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, are packed.
She visited one UNRWA facility, housing some 13,000 people, where "you could hardly even walk through".
Food aid and support to bakeries
Despite immense challenges, WFP reaches over a million people in Gaza and the West Bank each month with food assistance, bread and nutrition interventions, she said.
Beyond that, the UN agency uses "every emergency dollar that we invest in this operation" to also help restore private sector supply chains by supporting local bakeries, which have begun operating again thanks to provisions of wheat flour, fuel and yeast.
WFP is also helping to keep commerce alive amid the conflict.
"We channel our in-kind assistance to the shops that we were working with before, so they keep their people paid and keep the shops open. So then when the markets are back on, they are there," she said.
Endless hours waiting
She reported, however, that humanitarian operations have become ever more difficult to carry out in Gaza. For example, travelling from Deir Al-Balah in the central area to the northern crossing now takes eight hours instead of the usual 40 minutes.
Aid workers spend "endless hours" waiting for movement authorizations, and then have to wait again at holding points and checkpoints. Roads are already destroyed, and the upcoming winter season will make them even more impassable.
Impact of evacuation orders
Ms. Fleischer said that since she left Gaza, humanitarians have seen more Israeli evacuation orders and the massive deterioration of the security environment, which have affected their activities.
"WFP lost access to its third warehouse and last operational warehouse in Gaza in the Middle Area under evacuation order. We lost five WFP-supported community kitchens that had to be evacuated, and we lost close to 20 distribution points across the Strip," she said.
"While we do manage to bring in food, more or less, [it's] not enough, but we can't distribute it right now. So, we reached less people last month than what we usually do."
The evacuation orders also forced WFP to flee its main operational centre in Gaza under short notice - the third time since the conflict began.
Restore law and order
Ms. Fleischer said the increased violence is "choking our efforts to prevent famine in Gaza", where half a million people are in catastrophic and famine-like conditions.
She appealed for more crossing points into the enclave, streamlined operations so humanitarians can carry out their tasks, and the restoration of law and order so that they can safely reach people in need.
"And we also need cash to come back to Gaza so that people can start buying again in the shops," she said.
Exhaustion and displacement in Ukraine
Moving on to Ukraine, Ms. Fleischer reported on her visit to Sumy province two weeks ago, where the situation "is also dramatic".
She met people whose homes have been destroyed "and you can feel their exhaustion after so many displacements."
WFP left Ukraine six years ago but returned following the launch of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. Since then, teams have been reaching some two million people, mainly in frontline areas, with cash and food.
Grain exports, pensions support
Here again, the UN agency invests "every dollar" in strengthening local capacities, providing over $1.2 billion to the economy, mostly through buying the food it uses in Ukraine from local producers.
WFP also exported one million tonnes of food to countries in need under the 'Grain from Ukraine' humanitarian initiative.
"We work very closely with the Government to complement their social protection system," she added. "So, we top up pensions, and we top up disability pensions to people, rather than giving a full pension to them."
WFP also brings food to the frontlines, where supply chains are destroyed, and helps in the restoration of these critical networks.
This includes supporting bakeries and carrying out a demining project, together with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which has allowed some 5,000 small scale farmers to return to their fields.
