The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Gaza: One million receive food parcels as humanitarians race to ‘push back hunger’
Food is slowly returning to the shelves in Gaza amid “apocalyptic scenes” but supplies are still desperately inadequate, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday, as they issued fresh calls for wider access and continued financial support.
Briefing reporters in Geneva, Abeer Etefa, Senior Spokesperson at the World Food Programme (WFP), said that in October hundreds of thousands of people returned to northern Gaza – where famine was declared at the end of August – and that their access to food is “severely limited.”
While many returnees have found their homes in ruins, the displaced who remain in the south are “often living in tents and without access to food and services”, she warned.
Speaking from Cairo, Ms. Etefa said that three and a half weeks into the fragile ceasefire WFP has distributed food parcels to around a million people across the Strip against a target of 1.6 million as “part of the broad operation to push back hunger in Gaza”.
“Supplies are still limited, so each family is receiving a reduced food ration, which is one parcel, and that's enough food for 10 days,” she explained.
The WFP spokesperson explained that in order to continue to expand operations “to the level required and the level that we have committed to, we really need more access, more border crossings to be opened and… more access to key roads inside Gaza.”
UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Monday that no food aid convoy has reached the north via any direct crossings since 12 September.
“We still have only two border crossing points that are operational,” Ms. Etefa emphasized, referring to Kerem Shalom in the south of the enclave and Kissufim in central Gaza. “This severely limits the quantity of aid that WFP and other agencies are able to bring in to stabilize the markets and to address people's needs,” she said, highlighting the fact that the continued closure of the northern crossings into the Gaza Strip means that aid convoys are obliged to “follow a slow, difficult route from the south.”
The UN food relief agency spokesperson also said that some 700,000 people receive fresh bread on a daily basis through 17 WFP-supported bakeries, nine in south and central Gaza and eight in the north, with a goal to ramp up to 25.
Speaking from Gaza, WFP Communications Officer Nour Hammad said that while she was witnessing “apocalyptic scenes” across the enclave she also saw on people’s faces “the joy that the guns have fallen silent after all this time and the fear of whether or not the silence will last”.
She said that Gazans likened the destruction brought on by over two years of war to “the aftermath of an earthquake”.
“In every distribution point I have been to across the Gaza Strip over the past couple of days, people tell me one thing: this assistance matters,” she said. After months of “surviving on bits and pieces, rationing food, stretching one meal over days”, people are finally accessing “fresh bread, food parcels, cash transfers, nutrition and support”.
“This is where the journey to recovery starts,” she stressed.
While 200,000 of the most vulnerable are now receiving digital cash payments in order to “complement the food baskets with fresh foods” from local markets, prices there remain prohibitive.
“Food is slowly coming back to the shelves, but prices are still beyond the reach of families, considering… that they have depleted their resources to survive two years of war,” Ms. Hammad said. “Today, for example, I buy one apple at the cost of a kilo before the war,” she explained.
The fragility of the ceasefire and of aid flows is at the centre of people’s preoccupations, Ms. Hammad said, as she told the story of a displaced mother whom she met in Gaza City. Even though the woman is receiving assistance she has warned her children against eating the rations right away as “she cannot trust that tomorrow we'll bring food too,” the WFP communicator said.
“Families invite us into their tents…worn out by winter cold and summer heat, and they want to show us their reality. And their reality is that people need food. People need shelter, people need warm clothing because winter is around the corner and they need continued support,” she concluded.
-ENDS -
STORY Gaza food aid update – WFP
TRT: 4:36”
SOURCE: UNTV CH AND WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME (WFP)
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 4 NOVEMBER 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND AND 20 OCTOBER - 2 NOVEMBER 2025, GAZA VARIOUS LOCATIONS
1. WFP b-roll: Various shots of destruction in Gaza City, 21 October 2025/ 2 November 2025
2. Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
3. Wide shot: Speaker at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Abeer Etefa, Senior Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, World Food Programme (WFP): “In October, hundreds of thousands of people have returned to northern Gaza, many of them to homes that are in ruins. The access to food is severely limited, their access to food is severely limited. Most displaced households remain in the South, often living in tents and without access to food and services.”
4. Medium shot: Speaker at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Abeer Etefa, Senior Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, World Food Programme (WFP): “Three and a half weeks into the cease-fire in Gaza, we have distributed food parcels to around one million people across the Gaza Strip. That's part of the broad operation to push back hunger in Gaza. But to continue to expand operations to the level required and the level that we have committed to, we really need more access, more border crossings to be opened and you know, more access to key roads inside Gaza.”
6. Wide shot: Journalists in the Press room; speaker on screens.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Abeer Etefa, Senior Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, World Food Programme (WFP): “Getting food into the north remains difficult. A major obstacle is the continued closure of the northern crossings into the Gaza Strip. Aid convoys are obliged to follow a slow, difficult route from the south.”
8. Wide shot: Speaker at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Nour Hammad, Communications Officer, Country Office, World Food Programme (WFP): “Amid the apocalyptic scenes we see across Gaza, we also witness on people's faces the joy that the guns have fallen silent after all this time and the fear of whether or not the silence will last. And the shock, of course, and the destruction that they described to us as the aftermath of an earthquake.”
10. Wide shot: Journalists in the Press room; speaker on screens.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Nour Hammad, Communications Officer, Country Office, World Food Programme (WFP): “In every distribution point I have been to across the Gaza Strip over the past couple of days, people tell me one thing: this assistance matters, and after months of surviving on bits and pieces, rationing food, stretching one meal over days, Palestinians finally are receiving fresh bread, food parcels, cash transfers and nutrition and support from WFP and other humanitarian partners. And this is where the journey to recovery starts.”
12. Medium shot: Speaker at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) – Nour Hammad, Communications Officer, Country Office, World Food Programme (WFP): “Food is slowly coming back to the shelves, but prices are still beyond the reach of families, considering, of course, that they have depleted their resources to survive two years of war. Today, for example, I buy one apple at the cost of a kilo before the war.”
14. Medium shot: Technician in the Press room.
15. SOUNDBITE (English) – Nour Hammad, Communications Officer, Country Office, World Food Programme (WFP): “Families invite us into their tents most of the time in the field, and their tents are worn out by winter cold and summer heat, and they want to show us their reality. And their reality is that people need food. People need shelter, people need warm clothing because winter is around the corner and they need continued support.”
18. Various shots of journalists in the Press room.
19. WFP b-roll: Various shots of destruction and people returning to their homes in Gaza City, 21 October 2025/ 2 November 2025
20. WFP b-roll: Various shots of displaced family returning to their home in Gaza City, 21 October 2025
21. WFP b-roll: Distribution of WFP family food parcels, Gaza City, 26 October 2025
22. WFP b-roll: WFP hot meals distribution, Khan Younis, 30 October 2025
Similar Stories
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday provided and oral update to the 63rd session of the Human rights Council on Ukraine.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday provided and oral update to the 63rd session of the Human rights Council on the human rights situation in Haiti.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated delays in bringing lifesaving medicines, prosthetics and more from Israel into Gaza risk having devastating consequences on Palestinians who urgently need them in the wartorn enclave, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. “A truck full of non-priority supplies or the right supplies arriving too late, doesn't save lives. That's the question that actually matters," said Dr Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, WHO Representative in the OPT.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
DRC: Early access to care and oxygen decisive for Ebola patients’ survival – WHO
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers fighting the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak are struggling to overcome critical challenges to patient care, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UN
Civilians in Iran are continuing to feel the consequences of months of conflict and military escalation, the UN’s top official in the country has said, as loss of life, damage to civilian infrastructure and mounting economic pressures leave many facing continued uncertainty.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNICEF
Aid agencies in Yemen highlighted the growing hunger emergency sparked by renewed fighting between Houthi opposition forces and Government troops, after mobile health clinics reported that hundreds of children displaced by the violence are suffering from the most deadly form of malnutrition.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Displacement on the rise in Yemen as fighting continues - UNHCR
As hostilities worsen in Yemen, more people have been fleeing their homes, further intensifying the humanitarian crisis within the region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , OHCHR , UNFPA , UNOG , UNHCR , WHO
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement
Yemenis displaced by renewed fighting have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office issued on Friday a report documenting a shocking pattern of sexual violence amid Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine.
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.