Antoine Renard is the director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Palestine. Le Monde reached him while he was on assignment in Gaza.
You have been in Gaza since Monday, July 28. What signs of famine have you observed?
The emaciated faces we see are a clear sign of the ongoing hunger crisis. In Deir al-Balah, a mother told me she sometimes goes two days without eating so she can feed her three children, to whom she can only give a little pita bread, and that she has lost 20 kilos since the war began [in October 2023]. Those who were able to help this family − which was already very poor before the conflict − over the past 22 months can no longer afford to do so: Every household in Gaza is in survival mode.
Near Khan Yunis, a father of three children with very thin faces told me that he had gone to the aid convoys for the first time because the food distribution systems are unable to function and there are only about 60 communal kitchens left in the entire Gaza Strip. He managed to get a sack of flour. He wept as he spoke to me; a man he had seen there with his child was killed after being hit by a stray bullet. That tells you the level of despair: Gazans are risking their lives for one kilo of flour.
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