Every Gazan is hungry, as Israel weaponizes food – UN expert
Palestinians prepare food for the displaced families in southern Gaza
The Palestine Chronicle reports:
Gazans now make up 80 percent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, marking an unparalleled humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s continued bombardment and siege, according to UN human rights experts.
“Currently every single person in Gaza is hungry, a quarter of the population are starving and struggling to find food and drinkable water, and famine is imminent,” the experts said in a statement. In addition all children under five – 335,000 – are at high risk of severe malnutrition, the statement said.
“It’s unprecedented to make an entire civilian population go hungry this completely & quickly,” the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, said on Monday on X. “Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system. Israel is intentionally imposing a high rate of disease, prolonged malnutrition, dehydration + starvation by destroying civilian infrastructure,” Fakhri stressed.
Malnutrition in children means “a whole generation is now in danger of suffering from stunting,” the statement said. Stunting occurs when young children’s growth is hampered due to lack of adequate nourishment and causes irreparable physical and cognitive impairments, the experts explained. This will undermine the learning capacity of an entire generation.
Pregnant women are also not receiving adequate nutrition and healthcare, putting their lives at risk.
‘Israel is Destroying Food System’
The experts warned that “nowhere is safe in Gaza” as Israel declared and imposed a “total siege” on the enclave, depriving 2.3 million Palestinians of water, food, fuel, medicine, and medical supplies.
This, against the backdrop of a 17-year Israeli blockade, which before this war made approximately half of the people in Gaza food insecure and more than 80 percent reliant on humanitarian aid, it said.