No food has entered the Gaza strip since March 2, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN organisation specifically focused on providing food assistance in emergencies.

“All border crossings remain closed for both humanitarian and commercial supplies”, the WFP added, in a post on X, which also urged “all parties to prioritise civilian needs and allow aid into Gaza.”

Israel’s total blockade, which has now entered its 15th day, has also caused the prices of commercial food to surge, the WFP added, “with some staples increasing over 200 per cent”.

The UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) has called for the immediate flow of supplies into Gaza. “Parents in Gaza are struggling to feed their children. Hospitals are running out of supplies — again,” OCHA wrote. “It is critical to open up Gaza immediately.”

One mother, identified as Reem, recounted her situation. “We’ve run out of food, water, diapers for kids and detergents,” she said. “What we have can barely suffice us for at most 2-3 days. What would happen to us then.”

Samah Jabr, a psychiatrist and the former head of mental health at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, has said incidents like the detention and stripping of Palestinian children are causing a crisis for them.

Recently, Israeli forces reportedly detained and stripped two Palestinian boys, aged seven and 13, during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

“I see many adults who have psychological suffering because of experiences of political violence that they lived [through] when they were children. Because of detentions, home demolitions, home raids [and] detention of family members,” Jabr said from the city of Nablus.

“These experiences leave scars immediately, and also for generations to come… And it’s very important to provide psychosocial support for affected children as soon as possible following a traumatic event like this, whether physical violence or psychological humiliation, which is commonplace in Palestine,” she said.

“It leaves a big scar on the child. And if they don’t deal with it immediately, they will integrate a sense of worthlessness and inferiority.”