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
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Somalia: child hunger surges as humanitarian aid dries up – UNICEF
The global funding crisis for vital lifesaving work is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where hundreds of health and nutrition facilities have been forced to close, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
As the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s history continued spreading on Friday, UN responders renewed their urgent appeal for immediate international support, with existing funding for lifesaving work critically low.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
DRC: In the fight against Ebola, bikers transporting dead bodies hold key to community engagement - WHO
From the frontlines of the deadliest-ever Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) shared details on Tuesday of a massive push for community engagement, a day after yet another ambulance attack.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNFPA
Sudan: The harrowing reality of giving birth in a war zone
Sudanese women about to give birth are losing their babies and sometimes their own lives because of a lack of specialist healthcare support, amid the ongoing war, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
Colombia earthquake: International teams ready to support, says UN
As earthquake rescue efforts across western Colombia continued on Tuesday, UN agencies said that they stood ready to help “with everything we've got” if and when the request came from the authorities.
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | HRC
Myanmar's military has carried out a sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians – including airstrikes on homes, schools and camps for displaced people, alongside arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence – Human Rights Council-appointed investigators said on Tuesday.
1
6
1
1
Edited News | UNOG
In a new twist on panda diplomacy, UN Geneva welcomed five young peacocks to the Palace of Nations on Friday, a gift of India that preserves a tradition of keeping the stately birds in the grounds, that predates both the global body and its ill-fated predecessor, the League of Nations.
1
1
1
Edited News | WFP
Afghanistan’s hunger crisis intensifies as millions go without food aid – WFP
Afghanistan’s dire hunger crisis now affects 14 million people including babies fed on weak tea and a little bread by their despairing and dirt-poor parents.
In a new alert on Tuesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that one in three Afghans is now in the grip of acute food insecurity and that it lacks the resources to contain the deepening crisis.
1
1
2
Edited News | IOM
From fake jobs to forced crime: IOM sounds alarm on human trafficking behind online scams
A job offer can conceal a criminal network and a single click can lead to a nightmare. Lured by false promises of legitimate employment abroad, hundreds of thousands of people are being trafficked each year, held captive and forced to carry out online scams.
Ahead of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons marked on 30 July, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is raising the alarm over a rapidly expanding multibillion-dollar criminal industry that turns job seekers into victims of forced cybercrime.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In Sudan’s El Obeid, women risk drone attacks by day and rape by night to access water
As war intensifies in the city of El Obeid in North Kordofan state, filling up a jerrycan of water comes at a high risk for women and girls: by day, drones strike water points and by night, women who venture out to fill a bucket risk rape. UN Women warns of a dual terror that has turned access to water into a deadly gamble.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights spokesperson Shabia Mantoo made the following remarks on stranded Hormuz seafarers abandoned for months at sea, at the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the bi-weekly press conference in Geneva, Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Danielle Bell, head of UN Human Rights’ Ukraine team, spoke of the deepening impact of the war on the civilian population.