The Trump administration is set to destroy enough emergency food to feed every child in Gaza for a week due to the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) dismantling of USAID.
Several hundred metric tons of emergency food, including high-energy biscuits intended for children under 5, are set to expire in a matter of days after being held for months without being distributed, two sources told The Atlantic.
After DOGE dismantled USAID earlier this year, the agency was taken over by the State Department. Under new leadership, any food, money or aid needed direct approval to be handed out. Multiple sources told the outlet that they asked for approval to move the food, but never heard back from officials.
An order to destroy the food was sent out in May, just before Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of Congress that he would see to it that the food gets delivered.
An estimated 1.5 million hungry children could have been fed by the nearly 500 metric tons of food for a week, leading critics to review who could have received the much-needed food, such as famine-facing countries like Sudan.
In Gaza, about 500,000 people are currently facing starvation, according to the United Nations. A Food Security Phase Classification report from May stated that 71,000 children under the age of 5 are facing acute malnutrition.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the last six weeks while trying to obtain humanitarian aid at aid distribution centers in Gaza, according to the UN. Israeli forces killed at least 31 people on Saturday alone while attempting to access aid from a US-backed food distribution site.
The food aid had originally been intended for Afghanistan and Pakistan, however the State Department ended aid to Afghanistan and Yemen over concerns that it would fall into the hands of terrorists, NPR reported in April. Worries about accidentally aiding terrorists were not included in the reason for ending Pakistan's aid.
Originally published on Latin Times
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