Food from Mennonite Central Committee arrives in Gaza

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This article was published 25/03/2024 (558 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first truckload of food aid from the Mennonite Central Committee arrived in Gaza last week.

The aid, the first of six truckloads planned by the MCC, contained chickpeas, lentils, rice, flour, cooking oil, canned meat, fish and beans for 665 displaced families living in tent camps between Gaza City and Rafah.

The food was distributed by Al-Najd Developmental Forum, MCC’s longtime partner in Gaza.

“They had a good structure in place for distributing the food,” MCC disaster response director Bruce Guenther said, noting Al-Najd has expertise in giving out aid safely and practises good oversight for registering and verifying recipients as being the most in need.

Getting the food to Gaza from Jordan, where it was purchased and packed, was “challenging and frustrating,” he said, due to the need to get inspections and approvals from Israeli authorities.

Those “time-intensive inspections” by Israeli authorities caused a significant delay in shipping the food, Guenther said, adding they have resulted in a long queue of trucks waiting to cross the border.

MCC’s shipment sat in a warehouse for three weeks until it was permitted to enter the long line of trucks waiting to cross into Gaza, he said, noting that once the food arrived, Al-Najd staff only needed a few hours to unload and distribute it.

While grateful the first truckload from the organization made it into Gaza, much more aid is needed as the Israel-Hamas war continues to rage, Guenther said.

“The situation is dire,” he said, referencing a United Nations report that states the entire population of Gaza — about 2.3 million people — are enduring high levels of acute food insecurity and that more than one million are suffering from “catastrophic” food insecurity.

“The massive gravity of the situation is unbelievable,” Guenther said, noting that before the Hamas Oct. 7 attack in Israel about 500 trucks a day brought food and other items into Gaza. Now, it’s only about 160 or so. “That’s not enough.”

What is needed, Guenther said, is for Israeli authorities to speed up approvals and let more aid get into the besieged area. “There’s no need for airdrops or a temporary port. There are good roads.”

The situation is the worst he’s seen in his 17 years with MCC, which has its Canadian headquarters in Winnipeg.

“I’ve seen many other challenging situations, such as poor roads and rainy seasons, but nothing like this,” Guenther said.

Famines, he noted, typically take a year or so to develop. “This one only took a few months and has been caused by human action, or inaction.”

To prevent mass starvation, Israeli authorities need to let go of their “chokehold on delivery of aid” so food can get to hungry people, Guenther said.

“It is a crime to withhold aid to civilians, in any context … the international community and the Israeli government must act to prevent famine in Gaza.”

The total cost of the MCC’s efforts to provide food for Gaza is $1.6 million. It was made possible by donations of just over $2 million from Canadians and Americans who gave to the organization’s food relief program. Of that, $767,000 came from Canada, with $290,000 of the contributions from Manitobans. Excess funds will be used for subsequent aid truckloads.

The project in Gaza is being done in partnership with Canadian Foodgrains Bank, also based in Winnipeg, with support from the Humanitarian Coalition and matching funds from the federal government.

The MCC is appealing for more donations. For more information, go to mcc.org.

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