Liberal Leader Mark Carney urged Israel to allow the World Food Programme to work in Gaza, saying food must not be used as a “political tool,” hours after the UN agency ran out of stocks due to a sustained Israeli blockade on supplies.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday it had delivered its last remaining supplies to kitchens providing hot meals in Gaza and that the facilities were expected to run out of food in the coming days.
“The UN World Food Programme just announced that its food stocks in Gaza have run out because of the Israeli Government’s blockade — food cannot be used as a political tool,” Carney said on X.
The UN agency said no humanitarian or commercial supplies had entered Gaza for more than seven weeks because all main border crossing points were closed, the longest closure the Gaza Strip had ever faced.
“Palestinian civilians must not bear the consequences of Hamas’ terrorist crimes,” Carney wrote in the social media post. “The World Food Programme must be allowed to resume its lifesaving work.”
Israel has previously denied that Gaza is facing a hunger crisis. The military accuses the Hamas militants who run Gaza of exploiting aid, which Hamas denies, and says it must keep all supplies out to prevent the fighters from getting it.
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The Gaza government media office on Friday said that famine was becoming a reality in the enclave of 2.3 million people.
Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone.
A Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people, with 251 hostages were taken to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 51,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to health officials.
In his post on X, Carney noted that Canada had recently committed nearly $100 million to support the UN and other international partners in providing food and humanitarian aid.
“We will continue to work with our allies towards a permanent ceasefire and the immediate return of all hostages,” he wrote.
Carney’s remarks come as U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow food and medicine into the Gaza Strip.
Canada’s federal election will take place Monday.
