Fresh out of Barnard College with a degree in political science, Riley is learning the ropes as a writer and reporter for GZERO. When she isn’t writing about global politics, you can find her making GZERO’s crossword puzzles, conducting research on American politics, or persisting in her lifelong quest to learn French. Riley spends her time outside of work grilling, dancing, and wearing many hats (both literally and figuratively).
A group of UN-mandated experts on Tuesday warned that famine is spreading throughout the Gaza Strip, where at least 33 children have died of malnutrition since the end of May.
Food has been scarce in the enclave since the beginning of Israel’s ground invasion, due in part to Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza. But the amount of humanitarian aid entering the enclave dropped by two-thirds when the war spread south to Rafah, dropping from an average of 176 aid trucks a day to just 58 because of the tightening of Egypt’s border with the region and the deadly security conditions.
Meanwhile, Israel accuses UN agencies of failing to distribute supplies efficiently and says the UN famine warnings amount to “misinformation.” The number of people the UN-backed global famine monitor forecasts as facing “catastrophic” food insecurity has dropped from 1.1 million to 495,000 people since its previous update in March.
Other solutions to increase aid – like the US-built temporary pier – only delivered 137 trucks of aid before collapsing due to inclement weather. The pier is expected to be reattached this week and should allow for millions of pounds of aid to enter from Cyprus.
