‘Strong likelihood’ famine is imminent in north Gaza, say food security experts
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Children gathering to receive food aid at Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on Nov 6.
PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON/UNITED NATIONS - There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, a committee of global food security experts warned on Nov 8, as Israel pursues a military offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in the area.
“Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” said the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) in a rare alert.
The warning comes just days ahead of a US deadline for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on US military aid.
Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“If no effective action is taken by stakeholders with influence, the scale of this looming catastrophe is likely to dwarf anything we have seen so far in the Gaza Strip since Oct 7, 2023,” the FRC said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that there are between 75,000 and 95,000 people still in northern Gaza.
The FRC said it could be “assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing” in north Gaza.
“Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future,” it said.
Israel began a wide military push in northern Gaza in October. The US has said it is watching to ensure that its ally’s actions on the ground show it does not have a “policy of starvation” in the north.
The FRC reviews findings by the global hunger monitor – an internationally recognised standard known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
The IPC defines famine as when at least 20 per cent of people in an area are suffering extreme food shortages, with at least 30 per cent of children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.
The IPC is an initiative involving UN agencies, national governments and aid groups that sets the global standard on measuring food crises.
The IPC warned in October that the entire Gaza Strip was at risk of famine, while top UN officials last week described the northern Gaza Strip as “apocalyptic” and said everyone there was “at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence”.
The amount of aid entering Gaza has plunged to its lowest level in a year, according to UN data, and the UN has repeatedly accused Israel of hindering and blocking attempts to deliver aid, particularly to Gaza’s north.
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon in October told the Security Council that the issue in Gaza was not a lack of aid, saying over a million tonnes had been delivered in the past year. He accused Hamas of hijacking the aid.
Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli allegations that it was stealing aid and says Israel is to blame for the shortages.
“The daily average number of trucks entering Gaza in late October was about 58 per day,” UN World Food Programme director of food security and nutrition analysis Jean-Martin Bauer told Reuters on Nov 8.
“We were getting about 200 a day in September and August, so that’s really a big, big decline,” he said. REUTERS
