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There have been some doomsday reports that Gaza food aid might be severely impacted as a result of UNRWA funding suspension. E.g.:

Philippe Lazzarini, said Saturday the organization’s program inside Gaza, where it supports 2 million desperate people, “is collapsing” due to the pending aid cuts, which he called “additional collective punishment.”

OTOH, I seem to recall that other organizations provide food aid in Gaza as well. Or at least, it seems that UNRWA was only the last mile in the distribution, even of USAID. (The latter however also seems to have had their own employees on the ground in West Bank and Gaza, at least in 2018, but I'm not sure more recently.)

So, how much food aid did UNRWA provide recently [before the suspension], and can other organizations pick up the slack, and where does that have to happen (inside Gaza? outside?)

(Please be careful with correlations though, because e.g. some aid has been recently held up by Israeli protesters, which is not related to UNRWA, but to their demands that Hamas release the hostages.)

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  • Note that the total amount of food available in Gaza is insufficient for the population (according to the UN/ FAO, fao.org/newsroom/detail/Fao-hunger-gaza/en) and a large proportion of all food supply arrives via international aid. So if you could aid, the current hunger will get worse. It is of course still interesting to know by how much.
    – quarague
    Commented Jan 31 at 7:34
  • @quarague "So if you could aid, the current hunger will get worse" could you please explain that sentence? I'm not sure I follow
    – Alex Robinson
    Commented Jan 31 at 11:47
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    @AlexRobinson Dumb spelling error, it should read 'cut' instead of 'could'.
    – quarague
    Commented Jan 31 at 11:48
  • @quarague OH that makes more sense, thank you for the clarification
    – Alex Robinson
    Commented Jan 31 at 11:49

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UNWRA's status report from 29 January 2024 gives the following numbers:

All information from 25- 27 January 2024, is valid as of 24 January 2024 at 22:30
Days 111-113 of Hostilities

  • In the period between 21 October and 24 January, people received 21,881 metric tons (MT) of flour, including 12,987 from UNRWA. In the same period, UNRWA delivered to Gaza:

    • Medicines and medical supplies for a total value of more than US$ 6.2 million.
    • Nearly 19 million litres of water.
    • 2.7 million units of biscuits and high energy biscuits.
    • Nearly 4.7 million cans of protein-based food, including beans, chicken, beef and canned meat.
    • Over 6.5 million units of dairy items (cheese).
    • Other food items including dates, cake and juice.
    • Non-food items (NFI) including nearly 100,000 mattresses; 80,000 family hygiene kits; over 3.1 million diapers; approximately 144,000 blankets; and over 1.9 million cleaning supply items.

As to the distribution of the food, it says:

As of 27 January, in total, nearly 1.7 million displaced people are now sheltering across emergency shelters (UNRWA and public shelters), informal sites or in close vicinity to UNRWA shelters and distribution sites and within host communities.

Details on Food security are not given: "Due to the security situation in combination with internet connectivity we are unable to provide updates.". The last report containing data was from January 21, 2024 (Period 18- 20 January 2024) and said

UNRWA continued to distribute flour outside of shelters in the southern governorates. A total of 323,482 families have been reached so far.

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