Food flows into Gaza still far below targets, World Food Programme says

GENEVA, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday that supplies into Gaza were ramping up after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire but were still far short of its daily target of 2,000 tons because only two crossings are open, and none to the famine-hit north of the enclave.

Around 750 metric tons of food are now entering the Gaza Strip daily, according to the WFP, but this was still well below the scale of needs after two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas that has reduced much of Gaza to a wasteland and made nearly its entire population homeless.

"To be able to get to this scale-up, we have to use every border crossing point right now," WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told a Geneva press briefing.

She added that only two of the Israeli-controlled crossings were operational - Kerem Shalom in the south and Kissufim in the centre.

Some nutrition supplies for children and pregnant women have reached the north via the south, she said, but it was still far short of the level required.

"We haven't had large-scale convoys into Gaza City or to the north of Gaza," she said.

Food supplies delivered so far are enough to feed around half a million people for two weeks, she said.

Many Gazans were storing the food they are receiving because they are afraid that supplies might again dry up.

"They eat part of it, and they ration and keep some of the supplies for an emergency, because they are not very confident how long the ceasefire will last and what will happen next," she said.