Gaza conflict: a population being starved into submission

March 28, 2024

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Tags: aid deliveries closure, breast milk, catastrophe, children, crisis, Emergency, famine, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, IPC, lactating women, northern Gaza, pregnant women, preventable health problems, unrwa

With access to food aid denied by Israel, two-thirds of a million Gazans already face ‘catastrophe’.

Palestinians queue for food in Rafah, Gaza, 25 February 2024

Nnenna Awah writes in The Conversation on 25 March 2024:

Israel has banned the UN aid-coordinating agency, UNRWA, from accessing the population of northern Gaza where a major famine is now believed to be imminent. The country has accused UNWRA staff of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack but has provided no evidence this was the case and the agency denies the allegations.

Across the whole 141-square-mile Palestinian enclave, there are now high levels of critical food insecurity. But the situation is worst in the governorates of North Gaza and Gaza, where the situation is assessed at the highest level under international standard IPC 5, which represents “catastrophe/famine”.

This is defined as “an area has at least 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, at least 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and two people for every 10,000 dying each day due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease”.

The middle governorates of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, and Rafah in the south, are presently classed as being IPC 4, or “emergency”. This means the areas have large food consumption gaps, which are reflected in very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality.

Developing catastrophe
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification or IPC was originally developed by the UN in 2004 for use in Somalia. It is administered and implemented by a global partnership of 15 organisations.

It enables both governmental and non-governmental organisations to assess situations using a scientific measure, allowing decision-makers to reach informed decisions quickly and accurately in situations of extreme urgency – as in Gaza at the moment.

According to the most recent IPC rankings published on March 18 and based on data taken during the month to March 15, 677,000 people in Gaza were in IPC 5 – that is, a “catastrophic” situation. Another 876,000 people were in IPC 4, or an “emergency”.

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