UNITED NATIONS: Gaza City and surrounding areas are officially suffering from famine, and it will likely spread, a global hunger monitor determined on Friday (Aug 22), an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system said 514,000 people – nearly a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza – are experiencing famine, with the number due to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.
Some 280,000 of those people are in a northern region covering Gaza City – known as Gaza governorate – which the IPC said was in famine following nearly two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
It was the first time the IPC has recorded famine outside of Africa, and the global group predicted that famine conditions would spread to the central and southern areas of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of next month.
It added that the situation further north could be even worse than in Gaza City, but said limited data prevented any precise classification.
Israel dismissed the report as false and biased, saying the IPC had based its survey on partial data largely provided by Hamas, which did not take into account a recent influx of food.
“There is no famine in Gaza,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
For a region to be classified as in famine, at least 20 per cent of people must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.
Even if a region has not yet been classified as in famine because those thresholds have not been met, the IPC can determine that households there are suffering famine conditions, which it describes as starvation, destitution and death.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the Gaza famine was a “man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself”.
He called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages still held by Hamas and unfettered humanitarian access.
“People are starving. Children are dying. And those with the duty to act are failing … We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.”
UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday that famine in Gaza was the direct result of Israeli government actions, and warned that deaths from starvation could amount to a war crime.
The IPC analysis comes after Britain, Canada, Australia and many European states said the humanitarian crisis had reached “unimaginable levels”.
US President Donald Trump last month said many people there were starving, putting him at odds with some in his Republican party, who have staunchly supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly said there was no starvation and blamed Hamas for creating food shortages.
