Gaza famine threat persists as half a million starving, monitor finds
Palestinian four-year-old with cerebral palsy, also suffering from malnutrition, rests at a shelter at the UN-run Salaheddin school in central Gaza City on 10 June 2024
Middle East Eye reports on 25 June 2024:
A high risk of famine persists across the Gaza Strip as almost the entire population faces high levels of acute food insecurity or worse, including half a million suffering starvation, according to a global hunger monitor.
The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) published on Tuesday found that over 20 percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million population households go entire days and nights without eating, amid the eight-month Israeli war and siege on Gaza.
More than half of Palestinian households have exchanged their clothes for money to buy food, while a third have had to pick up trash to sell, the UN-backed report added.
In March, the IPC warned that famine was imminent in Gaza, projecting it could happen by the end of May. The report piled pressure on Israel, which had for months imposed a tight siege on the Palestinian enclave blocking the delivery of basic life-saving food and medical items.
Independent UN investigators say Israel used starvation of the Palestinian population as a weapon of war as part of a policy that amounts to collective punishment of civilians.
Amid international outrage, Israeli authorities “slightly” improved food access in some areas, alleviating the threat of imminent famine projected in March, according to the IPC. However, the situation has deteriorated in recent weeks with residents saying severe Israeli restrictions are back, escalating the starvation crisis again.
Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah, in southern Gaza, including its seizure of the Rafah crossing, has choked off the few routes into the enclave for humanitarian aid lorries. The IPC said the improvements observed after the March report should not “allow room for complacency” about the risk of famine potentially occurring in the coming weeks and months.
“The situation in Gaza remains catastrophic and there is a high and sustained risk of famine across the whole Gaza Strip,” the report said. It added that the “humanitarian space in the Gaza Strip continues to shrink and the ability to safely deliver assistance to populations is dwindling,” warning that the “recent trajectory is negative and highly unstable”.