(9 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Khan Younis – 9 March 2025
1. Various of people wheeling bags of flour with United Nations logo on front
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hamdi al-Deiri, displaced Palestinian: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 3 AND 4++
"The situation is very bad. I really struggle to find food. If it weren’t for the aid that comes to us from the relief organizations, our situation would have become very, very tough. I can’t describe it to you. One would go to sleep without dinner."
3. Close of bag of flour
4. People moving bags of flour
5. Various of men moving bags of flour
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bushra Abu Akar, Khan Younis resident:
"Last time we received aid, it was just a bag of flour and that bag is not enough. For those who have children, it is not enough to feed them. We need more aid than that. As you know, the situation is very difficult. No one is working. There is no money, there is nothing."
7. Various of people moving bags of flour
8. Man carrying bag of flour down road
STORYLINE:
Israel’s decision to cut off food and other supplies to Gaza has left residents in the enclave grappling with food insecurity and uncertainty with prices on essentials tripling.
A weeklong aid freeze has imperilled the progress aid workers say they have made to stave off famine during the six-week Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas agreed to in January.
Palestinians are lining up outside aid distribution centres across Gaza to receive humanitarian aid amid deteriorating conditions.
After more than 16 months of war, Gaza’s population is entirely dependent on trucked-in food and other aid.
But many say the aid they are getting is not enough to feed their families.
"Last time we received aid, it was just a bag of flour and that bag is not enough," said Bushra Abu Akar from Khan Younis.
Israel’s cutoff of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s 2 million people has sent prices soaring and humanitarian groups into overdrive trying to distribute dwindling stocks to the most vulnerable.
During the ceasefire’s first phase, humanitarian agencies rushed in supplies, with about 600 trucks entering per day on average.
Aid workers set up more food kitchens, health centers and water distribution points. But the progress relied on the flow of aid continuing.
The World Food Program, the U.N.’s main food agency, said last week that it has no major stockpile of food in Gaza because it focused on distributing all incoming food to hungry people during Phase 1 of the deal.
The agency also warned that its fuel stocks would only last for a few weeks.
The first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire brought the release of 25 Israeli hostages held by militants in Gaza and the bodies of eight others in exchange for the freeing of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
But an intended second phase of the deal — meant to bring the release of remaining hostages and a lasting truce and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza — has been thrown into doubt.
Talks on the second phase should have started a month ago.
Israel said that it would send a delegation to Qatar on Monday “in an effort to advance the negotiations” around the ceasefire in Gaza, while Hamas reported “positive signals” in talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators on starting negotiations on the truce’s delayed second phase.
Over the past week, Israel has pressed Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for an extension of the first phase, which ended last weekend, and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ef6aea8e657e48759b022fa29374ff54
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in March 14, 2025, 6:05 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
