Famine is unfolding in Gaza, where Israeli restrictions on food aid and ongoing fighting have produced a “worst-case scenario”, UN-backed hunger experts have said, calling for immediate intervention to save lives.
“Mounting evidence shows widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) alert said. “The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”
This is the first time the IPC has said famine is underway in Gaza, although it has previously warned that the territory was on the brink. During nearly two years of war, Israel has repeatedly limited aid trucks reaching Gaza, sometimes halting aid shipments entirely.
The famine alert came as health authorities in Gaza said the Palestinian toll from the war had passed 60,000. Civilians make up a majority of the victims.
The alert, based on “the latest evidence available”, does not formally classify Gaza as being in famine. That requires full analysis, which the IPC said would be carried out without delay, but data from Gaza already confirms two of three thresholds have been met.
Famine is formally classified as a situation where at least 20% of people face extreme food shortages, one in three children are acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 die daily from starvation-related causes.
Most of Gaza has crossed the food consumption threshold, “with one in three individuals going without food for days at a time”, the IPC alert said.
Child malnutrition rose rapidly in the first half of July, reaching the famine threshold in Gaza City. “Hospitals have reported a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths of children under five years of age, with at least 16 reported deaths since 17 July,” it said.
Between April and mid-July, more than 20,000 children were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition, 3,000 of them severely malnourished.
The third core indicator is starvation-related deaths. It is difficult to collect robust data in a health system nearing collapse after nearly two years of war but the World Food Programme and Unicef said in joint statement that these deaths are “increasingly common”.
Cindy McCain, the WFP executive director, said: “The unbearable suffering of the people of Gaza is already clear for the world to see. Waiting for official confirmation of famine to provide life-saving food aid they desperately need is unconscionable.”
The IPC report details how Israel’s “drastic restrictions” on the entry of food has limited shipments to far below the levels needed to cover basic needs in Gaza, without fresh foods such as vegetables and meat.
The population needs an estimated 62,000 metric tonnes of food staples each month. Israeli data shows no food entered Gaza in March or April, 19,900 tonnes entered in May and 37,800 tonnes entered in June, the IPC report says.
“This is unlike anything we have seen in this century,” said the WFP emergency director Ross Smith, addressing reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome. “It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century. We need urgent action now.”
Israel denies limiting aid shipments and has blamed food shortages in Gaza on other factors including distribution failures by the UN and Hamas diverting aid.
The IPC is a global initiative working with aid groups, international organisations and UN agencies to assess hunger levels in populations at risk. (The Guardian)