ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
People in northern Gaza are starving. The State Department says humanitarian aid is down 50% from its peak. The U.S. has warned Israel that a policy of starvation would be horrific and unacceptable. Israel denies that it is deliberately blocking food to the area and accuses Hamas of stealing aid from civilians.
Antoine Renard is the World Food Programme country director for Gaza, and he joins us from Jerusalem. Welcome.
ANTOINE RENARD: Thank you so much.
SHAPIRO: People in Gaza have struggled to find enough food for more than a year now, but things have clearly changed in northern Gaza recently. How would you describe this shift?
RENARD: Since the 1 of October until the 14 of October, so for practically 15 days, the World Food Programme, as well as UMWA and various humanitarian actor, were not in capacity to have new food assistance to come into the northern of Gaza, given the new military operation. The food pipeline has only been reinstated, starting from the 14, but at level that are still very low compared to the needs on the ground.
SHAPIRO: You say levels that are very low compared to the needs. So how many trucks are you sending to the border of Gaza, and how many trucks are being allowed through?
RENARD: So the challenge that we have is that there's still up to 440,000 population into northern Gaza. We were operating prior to the new military operation. We were having six bakeries up and running. And we were having a number of kitchens that were providing hot meals, as well as food parcels delivery. During two weeks, none actually entered. And we only rely on what were the stocks in the Gaza City, as well as northern Gaza. And now, while we rely normally on an average up to 60 to 90 trucks, depending on, you know, how much is coming in currently, since the 14 of October, we have an average of a maximum of 20 trucks on a daily basis.
SHAPIRO: Wow. So it used to be 60 to 90 trucks, and now you're seeing maximum 20 after two weeks of zero.
RENARD: Correct. Exactly. And the challenge that we have is that we are still having a number of impediments for actually the trucks to arrive on the platform to go and do the proper uploading of the goods that are coming. There's a number of checkpoints. You have truck drivers that are being interrogated before they go. And therefore, the number of hours in which we can operate is insufficient versus actually the food, the hygiene kits or the yeast that is coming onto the platform.
SHAPIRO: What rationale does Israel give when it says we're only going to allow 20 trucks through, not the 60 or 90 that we used to allow?
RENARD: The challenge that we do face as humanitarian is the goodwill of the fact that now the crossing is being reopened is also the capacity that they have on the ground to allow us to operate. And I think this is where we are still struggling a bit is while you have an ongoing military operation is at the same time for us to replenish the assistance to reach the population that are still in the north of Gaza.
SHAPIRO: And let's talk about what this means for the people who are starving. In many cases, families were already limiting their food to one meal a day, or parents were going hungry so that their children can eat. Now that humanitarian aid is even more diminished, what does that mean for people in northern Gaza?
RENARD: So what it means currently is the fact that people have been relying on a full humanitarian assistance now for nearly a year. In the northern of Gaza, you do not have any commercial goods that are coming in. You imagine that the only fresh foods that the population have in the area is bread. They are relying on canned food and hot meals. We are providing very staple foods. You can't rely on a year to year, only on can, and the only fresh items that you have is bread on a daily basis. That's why people are struggling so much currently to cover. If you're a kid, you need to have a proper growth. You need to have the proper different food items, being dairies, being fruits, vegetables, being meat or even fish, and you deprive of that for way too long.
SHAPIRO: That's Antoine Renard with the World Food Programme speaking with us from Jerusalem. Thank you.
RENARD: Thanks to you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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