An estimated 96% of the population is facing extreme levels of food insecurity, according to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association
Food insecurity in the Gaza Strip “has reached catastrophic levels,” a Catholic humanitarian organization has warned.
In his monthly update on the situation in Gaza in late May, Joseph Hazboun, regional director for CNEWA-Pontifical Mission for Palestine and Israel, painted a bleak picture that includes overcrowding at Gaza’s two Christian churches and an “increasingly dire” health situation.
Nearly 2 million people, about 90% of Gaza’s population, have been “displaced and living in overcrowded, unsafe conditions,” he said.
“With limited access to basic needs such as clean water, food and sanitation, health conditions are rapidly deteriorating,” he said. “Vulnerable groups, including infants, the elderly and pregnant women, are facing heightened risks of disease, malnutrition and preventable deaths.”
Israel’s continued military bombardments since October 2023 have left the health care system in shambles, with a shortage of medicine and health care professionals, he said.
An estimated 96% of the population is facing extreme levels of food insecurity, and some families are surviving on fewer than two meals a day.
“As of mid-May, more than 90 community kitchens have been forced to close due to a lack of fuel and supplies, with the remaining kitchens … unable to provide sufficient meals to meet the nutritional needs of the population,” Hazboun reported.
The Catholic Near East Welfare Association, or CNEWA, established in 1926 by Pope Pius XI to support the Eastern churches, administers the Pontifical Mission, which was founded as the Pontifical Mission for Palestine by Pope Pius XII in 1949 to care for Palestinian refugees. The mandate of the mission, which was subsequently placed under CNEWA’s direction, has been extended by several pontiffs to care for all those affected by war and poverty in the Middle East.
In a May 29 statement, Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said that since the attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, “the situation has reached tragic levels beyond anyone’s worst fears.”
“The horrific massacre of innocent Israelis and the subsequent response from Israel has resulted in unimaginable loss of life and human suffering,” said the archbishop, who has been a vocal advocate for peace.
The United Nations reports more than 1 million children in Gaza require immediate psychosocial support. In addition, nearly 85% of Gaza’s schools have been damaged or destroyed.
At the end of his general audience at the Vatican May 28, Pope Leo XIV pleaded for peace in Gaza.
“In the Gaza Strip, the cry of mothers, of fathers who clutch the lifeless bodies of children and who are continually forced to move in search of a little food and safer shelter from bombing, rises ever more intensely to the sky,” the pope said.
