July 29 (UPI) — The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza is “the worst-case scenario of famine,” amid widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease driving a surge in hunger-related deaths, a global hunger monitoring group said Tuesday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said in a bulletin that the latest food consumption data indicated famine thresholds had been reached in most of Gaza and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City — but stopped short of issuing a formal famine notice.
“The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip. Conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels,” said IPC, which is backed by the United Nations, European Commission, World Health Organization and global NGO’s.
The IPC said that since its last analysis in May, access to food across Gaza was now “alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous” due to a “devastating” intensification of bombing and ground operations that had displaced an additional 325,000 people, killed 6,700 people and razed critical infrastructure.
The group’s Famine Review Committee said that despite the negative impact on the data caused by severely restricted humanitarian access, the evidence clearly showed a sharp jump in the rate of increase in “starvation, malnutrition and mortality.”
“Many nutritional programs have run out of nutrition supplies and the number of sites able to provide health and nutrition services has greatly decreased. Shipments of medical supplies are also severely constrained, leading to increased human suffering and elevated morbidity. Deprivation of adequate, clean drinkable water is causing extreme suffering and has greatly increased the risk of morbidity and mortality,” it said.
Between April and the middle of July, more than 20,000 children were hospitalized with acute malnutrition, 3,000 of them severely malnourished, with hospitals reporting a sharp rise in hunger-related illness among under-fives.
The committee expressed horror at the deteriorating situation, in particular killings of civilians attempting to access aid, and reiterated its call for the resumption of humanitarian assistance at scale and a cease-fire, warning that failure to act made famine a certainty.
“This is not a surprise. This is what we’ve been seeing for quite some time,” CARE Gaza response director Beckie Ryan told NBC News.
The IPC alert came as the Hamas-run Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed since Israel began its offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, breached the 60,000 mark.
Amid mounting international condemnation of the unfolding hunger crisis in Gaza — and a determination to do something about it — Israel has instituted a series of “tactical pauses” in military activity to allow aid to be distributed, and on Monday vowed to work with international partners.
“Israel will continue to work with international agencies as well as the United States and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
As recently as Sunday, Netanyahu continued to insist there was no hunger crisis in Gaza.
“Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,” he said.
In a break that presaged the opening of a gap with Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump said he wasn’t convinced by Netanyahu’s denials, saying the TV images that he had seen looked like “real starvation,” and that the scenes couldn’t be “faked.”
Israel acknowledges it has imposed aid restrictions and replaced much of a decades-old system run by the United Nations and international aid charities with its Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but says it was necessary to prevent Hamas from stealing aid and reselling it to fund military operations.
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