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Nearly all of Gaza’s population is struggling with food shortages and
hunger, and half a million people are now facing starvation, a new
report by independent experts says.

The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or
I.P.C., says in order to buy food, more than half of households in
Gaza have had to exchange clothes and other goods for money. A third
have resorted to picking up trash to sell. The report says many in
Gaza go entire days and nights without eating.

The analysis was conducted by 35 experts, some from U.N. agencies and
major aid groups. The I.P.C. was founded two decades ago to address
famine in Somalia at the time.

The I.P.C.report says more than 340,000 Palestinians in Gaza are
experiencing the most severe form of acute food insecurity and
starvation, or what is classified as “catastrophe,” a category just
short of famine. That number is expected to climb to 495,000 people
over the coming three months, the study says. The report team used
publicly available data as well as phone surveys to reach people in
Gaza.

Israel declared a siege on Gaza after the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7
that killed 1,200 and took around 250 hostages, according to the
government figures. Israeli airstrikes, shelling and violence in Gaza
since then has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, including
thousands of children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It has not
kept a tally of the missing or additional deaths from preventable
disease, malnutrition and other consequences of war.

Israel has since restricted everything that enters while stating it
has no official policy limiting aid. The government insists it has
facilitated the entry of aid by land, air and sea, but some human
rights organizations and the top prosecutor for the International
Criminal Court allege Israeli leaders are using starvation as a weapon
of war against civilians in Gaza, allegations they deny.

A previous I.P.C report in March warned of looming famine in north
Gaza unless more aid was allowed in. The Health Ministry in Gaza and
doctors reported babies dying in hospitals without formula or breast
milk from malnourished mothers in Gaza City.

Facing international pressure and demands by the Biden administration
to get more aid into Gaza, Israel opened a land crossing for aid to
enter the north in recent months. More aid overall reached the Gaza
Strip in March and April.

This appears to have “temporarily alleviated” conditions in north
Gaza, the I.P.C. study says, adding that the “available evidence does
not indicate that famine is currently occurring.”

The study, however, says that due to worsening conditions since May in
southern and central Gaza, there is a high risk of famine now across
all of Gaza. Humanitarian aid has slowed into Gaza since Israel’s
assault on the southern city of Rafah last month.

“The prolonged nature of the crisis means that this risk remains at
least as high as at any time during the past few months,” according to
the report from the I.P.C’s Famine Review Committeem,which added that
“extreme human suffering is without a doubt currently ongoing in the
Gaza Strip.”

Bombings and displacement hamper access to aid

In early May, Israeli tanks effectively shut the Gaza border in Rafah
with Egypt, where aid and fuel had been entering. Fighting between the
Israeli military and Hamas in Rafah also made it dangerous and
difficult for aid organizations to reach their warehouses there or
collect aid that entered Gaza at the southern crossing with Israel.
Aid groups told NPR at the time they were rationing food supplies to
distribute while tens of thousands more people needed hot meals.

“Renewed hostilities and repeated displacementcontinue to erode
people’s ability to cope and access humanitarian assistance,” the
I.P.C. report notes.

Aid groups react to the report

The World Food Programme, which distributes food in Gaza, says the
I.P.C. report paints a stark picture of ongoing hunger in the
Palestinian territory. The agency says in order to prevent famine,
people need to be able to have access to the nutrients found in fresh
food, clean water and functioning hospitals. Currently, people are
largely living off canned food and bread.

Israel blames Hamas for siphoning off aid that enters, something the
group denies. Israel has also blamed U.N. agencies and aid groups for
not distributing effectively the humanitarian assistance that does
enter.

Humanitarian workers have beenkilled in Israeli airstrikes and aid
groups say their trucks are being looted amid widespread hunger and
lawlessness. The Israeli military has targeted local clans and police
securing the aid.

Mercy Corps, an aid organization working in Gaza, says Israel is
allowing commercial trucks passage into the territory while the entry
of humanitarian aid trucks people depend on is limited. They say aid
is trickling in.

“People are enduring subhuman conditions, resorting to desperate
measures like boiling weeds, eating animal feed, and exchanging
clothes for money to stave off hunger and keep their children alive,”
Mercy Corp vice president of global policy and advocacy, Kate
Phillips-Barrasso said in a statement.

“The population cannot endure these hardships any longer. The toll of
military action has been far too high,” she added.

It’s not just food that’s lacking in Gaza

Hospitals, bakeries, ambulances and telecommunications systems are all
running on limited fuel due to unstable supplies entering Gaza.

The amount of medical aid crossing into Gaza is also insufficient,
according to the World Health Organization.

A surgeon in Gaza City with Project Hope, Dr. Osama Hamed, said in a
statement that he treated a 13-year-old boy last week with a vascular
and ureteral injury, but the hospital lacked the sutures needed to
operate. A staffer had to physically run to a nearby hospital to get
the last box they had, he says.

Dr. Hamed says doctors are also seeing malnourished children daily in
Gaza City. NPR has previously reported on malnourished children dying
in central Gaza as the health-care system collapses.

“We see patients who are just skin and bones, as a sign of severe
malnutrition,” he observed. “Patients have reported not eating any
protein for several months, making it impossible for their bodies to
recover from infections and injuries.”

Additionally, there isn’t enough drinking water in Gaza. “The other
day, a young girl was admitted to the operating room and begged me for
water,” he says.

https://www.wunc.org/2024-06-25/high-risk-of-famine-across-gaza-as-hunger-spreads-experts-say