Gaza Faces Famine As Israel Continues Aid Cuts (image @UNRWA)
Gaza, Palestine: Local authorities and NGOs in Gaza have warned of an imminent famine in the palestinian territory while Israel continues its aid cuts. According to Ismail Thawabteh, who heads Gaza’s government media office, the region has officially entered the first stage of famine with nearly two million people completely losing access to food security.
The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) said that 91% of the population faces crisis-level food insecurity. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has published an urgent warning on Sunday over the escalating humanitarian crisis where 60,000 children under five are already facing malnutrition.
The UN warning was in the wake of Israel’s resumption of the military campaign in the enclave from March after two months of ceasefire. Since March 2, Israel has imposed a restriction of humanitarian aid to Gaza. According to the UN, the blockage of access to food convoys have caused massive disruption to food distribution, hospital fuel supplies, and the movement of humanitarian workers.
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The PNGO adds that the food supplies have nearly run out after more than one month of the aid cuts with bakeries shut down, food and medicine warehouses bombed and water desalination plant destroyed. The network, therefore, demanded the Palestinian Authority and United Nations to declare the territory a famine zone.
The famine claims are not fresh either. Several organizations and officials that have acknowledged the crisis in Gaza as in many instances after Israel started its military attack on the strip on October 7, 2023 countering a Hamas-led attack in North Israel. Israel had announced on October 9 that it was blocking the entry of food and water into Gaza.
On January 7, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres warned that “widespread famine looms” in Gaza. By May 4, Cindy McCain, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), told NBC News that Northern Gaza was already in full-blown famine and the crisis was spreading south. Stacy Gilbert, a former U.S. State Department official who resigned in protest of the Biden administration’s stance, said it was “absolutely unanimous” that Israel is blocking humanitarian aid and that’s why famine is happening.
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In addition, there was also accusation of war crimes against Israel in blocking the aid. On 18 December 2023, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip. In the arrest warrant for Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence minister Yoav Gallant in International Criminal Court, one of the key allegations was using starvation as a weapon of war. Yoav Gallant ordered the aid cut and said “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly”.
Moreover deaths by malnutrition were also reported from Gaza. In May 2024, the head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children, noted that 28 children were dead from malnutrition. In a latest report of the World Peace Foundation, based on WHO data, hospitalizations for severe acute malnutrition in Gaza rose sharply from 73 to 394 by December 2024.
Since October 7, 2023 a total of 50,933 people have been killed and 116,045 wounded in Gaza among which 1,563 were killed after Israel restarted its military operation.
