News Center- On Monday, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, met with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy H. McCain and the Deputy Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Xavier Castellanos to launch the “Food for Gaza” initiative.

The table will be open to all the national and International stakeholders

At the press release after the meeting at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani said, “it is an important initiative that aims to stop a further deterioration towards a predicted widespread famine. We decided to set up a permanent coordination technical table open to all the national and International stakeholders willing to contribute.”

Antonio Tajani stated that they would inform G7 countries, European Union (EU) members, the Israeli government, the Palestine authority and Arab countries about the initiative. “It is not sufficient to drop aid from the sky. We spoke about that. It is important to increase the number of trucks since (there is) not enough food, disorder arises because everybody is looking for food; and everyone is trying to help children who are suffering.

In response to a question by a journalist about Italy's financial support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Antonio Tajani said that Italy would keep suspending financial support for the UNRWA until further announcement.

FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu also spoke at the press release. “Today is the 1st day of the Ramadan so we have to put more efforts in any means to support the Gazan people; they are suffering while celebrating Ramadan this evening.”

The executive director of the UN World Food Program, Cindy McCain said in her speech the UN World Food Program is ready to “to develop a strategy to strengthen humanitarian access to Gaza and get desperately needed food supply and supplies to people suffering from severe hunger.”

“If we do not exponentially increase the size of aid going into the northern areas, famine is imminent. It is imminent. We are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to get sufficient food aid to people in northern Gaza. Road access and the use of existing ports and crossings is the only way to get food into Gaza at the scale that this is now required. We need 300 trucks of food entering Gaza every single day.``