Chef José Andrés, the outspoken founder of the humanitarian group World Central Kitchen, is imploring the international community to intervene to ease the dire food crisis in Gaza, on the heels of his nonprofit resuming its aid operations there after a five-day hiatus.
The Spanish American chef penned a new op-ed in The New York Times over the weekend titled "The World Cannot Stand By With Gaza on the Brink of Famine."
He posted a link to the op-ed on his personal Instagram, writing: "There is no excuse for the world to stand by and watch two million human beings suffer on the brink of full-blown famine."
"A starving human being needs food today, not tomorrow," Andrés wrote. "People of good conscience must stop the starvation in Gaza. If we want to light the darkness, we need to extend our soul to the hungry. And we need to do it now."
WCK announced in a recent update Friday that it has resumed limited cooking operations in Gaza, but said its "ability to continue cooking" at the Deir al-Balah Field Kitchen in Gaza "remains uncertain day-to-day."
"With stock of some ingredients partly replenished, we are working to be able to serve 60,000 meals daily through our Field Kitchen and partner community kitchens -- less than half what we were able to cook over the previous month," the organization said in its latest update. "Our cooks are making the most of supplies, and distribution teams are ensuring meals reach the most vulnerable people, including staff and patients at medical facilities."
WCK reiterated that "access to supplies remains fragile," noting that its team on the ground previously "ran out of essential ingredients."
"I am immensely proud of the ongoing work of the WCK Gaza team through unimaginable challenges. It is because of them that we are able to cook again for hospitals and vulnerable families in Deir al-Balah,” the organization's response director, Wadhah Hubaishi, said in a statement.
When WCK first shared the news of the halt in meal services on its website and Instagram page, the organization said its trucks were stuck at the border and they had "finished all the stock in hand."
Andrés also addressed in the essay the recent WCK stoppage of hot meal services in Gaza due to the lack of food supplies.
"We are continuing to bake bread and deliver water. But the people of Gaza still need a hot meal,” the organization said, adding that they served 80,000+ meals on July 19.
Andrés shared that post on his personal Instagram on July 20, adding in part, "Once again, @WCKitchen we have run out of food in Gaza. Our brave teams on the ground report the security situation has deteriorated significantly, and our ability to operate is severely constrained. We need to get trucks of supplies safely to our field kitchens ASAP so that we can get cooking!"
In the previous July 20 update, WCK noted that this was the second time it was forced to pause kitchen operations over "lack of access to aid." The first instance occurred in May, following what it described then as a "complete depletion of food supplies." The group's operations restarted 12 weeks later, in June, after it received new aid shipments.
The pause in operations came as hundreds of Palestinians were killed trying to access food from aid distribution sites run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, amid what the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health and global humanitarian groups have described as a forced starvation campaign by Israel. Israel previously barred humanitarian aid shipments from entering Gaza for 11 weeks this spring before lifting the blockade to allow for limited aid deliveries.
Israel has denied accusations that it is using starvation tactics against Palestinians. Last week, David Spencer, a spokesperson for the Israeli government, called the food crisis in Gaza "a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas."
On July 20, at least 81 Palestinians were killed trying to obtain food, with another 150 people injured, according to the Ministry of Health. The Israeli military has said it is aware of reports of casualties near aid distribution sites and claimed its troops fired near crowds to "remove an immediate threat posed to them," but did not provide details.
To date, more than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza while trying to get food, the United Nations reported.
Last April, seven aid workers with WCK were killed during an Israel Defense Forces attack in Gaza.
An earlier version of this story was first published July 21, 2025 when World Central Kitchen first announced it suspended operations due to lack of ingredients.
