[IsraelTimes] After touring Gaza on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir also met with UN World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain to review ongoing humanitarian aid efforts in the Gaza Strip.
The meeting, attended by Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, the head of COGAT, the Israeli body that coordinates with assistance providers in Gaza, outlined key measures to stabilize the Strip’s humanitarian situation and emphasized ensuring aid reaches civilians directly, not Hamas, the IDF said.
The meeting came days after the WFP-linked Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared famine in northern Gaza for the first time — a claim Israel swiftly rejected, accusing the report of relying on “biased and self-interested sources originating from Hamas.”
McCain, who has been an outspoken critic of Israeli aid restrictions, claimed in May 2024 that the Strip was already in “full-blown famine.” She said last week hunger in the Strip was at “catastrophic” levels.
The IDF said Wednesday that two new aid distribution centers run by the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will be completed in the coming days in southern Gaza, while a facility in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood will close. Once completed, the total number of GHF centers in the Strip will rise from four to five.
According to GHF, which hands out boxes of dried, uncooked food, its centers have distributed more than 140 million meals in Gaza since operations began, including over 1.5 million meals delivered on Wednesday alone.
As the IDF moves ahead with its plans to conquer Gaza City, it has called on the area’s residents to evacuate and head south, saying that it is working to improve the infrastructure in those areas of Gaza to accept more displaced Palestinians. 
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