MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A ceasefire brokered seven months ago helped reverse a famine in parts of Gaza. Last month, though, U.N.-backed experts on hunger warned the situation in Gaza remains highly fragile without sustained and expanded access to aid. Then this week, the biggest provider of hot meals in the territory cut its distribution by half. The organization says that is because of higher costs caused by the war in Iran. NPR's Anas Baba in Gaza reports.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: It was just three months ago that the founder of World Central Kitchen, Jose Andres, published this video from Gaza.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOSE ANDRES: One million.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: One million.
ANDRES: Reach 1 million.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Inshallah, yeah.
ANDRES: Now, it looks like a big number, but we can do it.
BABA: One million meals a day, he says. That's enough to cover half of Gaza's population.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ANDRES: It's not easy. That's true. But we do it because we believe in the urgency of now.
BABA: That urgency is because the entire population of the war-torn territory relies on aid for survival. But World Central Kitchen now says it can only distribute half a million meals a day in Gaza, slashing distribution by 50%. In an essay published in Semafor, Andres says, the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran has pushed up the cost of rice by 30%, while chicken and meat have spiked between 10- and 20%. Gas prices have also soared.
(SOUNDBITE OF POTS AND PANS BANGING)
BABA: At a school that's now a shelter for displaced families, Palestinian children bang on empty pots and pans to draw attention to the looming fear that, without these meals, they could face hunger again.
AMNA ORMANA: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: "We don't know how we will get by or how we will feed our kids," says Amna Ormana, a mother at this rally. She says she doesn't have money to buy her own food. The U.N. World Food Programme also distributes foods and subsidizes bakeries in Gaza. But they too are facing higher costs because of the war in Iran and the closure of Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane. It's unclear if any aid group will be able to plug the gap by the World Central Kitchen. Here is the group's response director for the Mideast, Wadhah Hubaishi.
WADHAH HUBAISHI: The long-term responsibility of feeding an entire population cannot rest on one organization alone.
BABA: But even the U.N. says, funding shortfalls have led to it scaling back the number of meals it distributes daily in Gaza by nearly 50% compared to February before the war in Iran. It says a fifth of families in Gaza are eating just one meal a day. And while Israel says hundreds of trucks of supplies enters Gaza daily, and that Gaza is, quote, "flooded with aid," the U.N. says it's also still facing restrictions on supply getting in. Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza City.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.