U.N. says ‘famine is imminent’
Israel launches another raid on main hospital
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The U.N. food agency said Monday that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza, where 70% of the remaining population is experiencing catastrophic hunger, and that a further escalation of the war could push around half of Gaza’s total population to the brink of starvation.
The alarming report came as Israel faces mounting pressure from even its closest allies to streamline the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip and open more land crossings. Deliveries by air and sea that the U.S. and other countries have turned to in recent weeks are too slow and too small, aid groups say.
The European Union’s top diplomat said the impending famine was “entirely manmade” as “starvation is used as a weapon of war.”
Israeli forces meanwhile launched another raid on the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital early Monday, saying Hamas militants had regrouped there and had fired on them from inside the Shifa Hospital compound.
Clashes continued all day in and around the hospital, where Palestinian officials say tens of thousands of people have been sheltering. The Israeli military said troops had killed 20 people it identified as Hamas militants and one of its own solders was killed, though its identification of the dead as militants could not be confirmed. Among those killed was a senior commander in Gaza’s Hamas-led police forces who Israel said was hiding in the hospital but who Gaza officials said was coordinating protection of aid convoys.
The army last raided Shifa Hospital in November after claiming that Hamas maintained an elaborate command center within and beneath the facility. The military revealed a tunnel leading to some underground rooms, as well as weapons it said were found inside the hospital. But the evidence fell short of the earlier claims, and critics accused the army of recklessly endangering the lives of civilians.
The World Food Program on Monday released the latest findings of its Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, an international process for estimating the scale of hunger crises.
It says virtually everyone in Gaza is struggling to get enough food, and that around 677,000 people — nearly a third of the population of 2.3 million — are experiencing the highest level of catastrophic hunger, meaning they face extreme lack of food and critical levels of acute malnutrition. That includes 210,000 people in the north.
Outright famine is projected to occur in the north anytime between now and May, it said. An area is considered to be in famine when 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition and at least two adults or four children per every 10,000 people die daily.
The report said the first condition has been fulfilled and it is “highly likely” the second has as well. The death rate is expected to accelerate and reach famine levels soon, it said.
It warned that if Israel broadens its offensive to the packed southern city of Rafah, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed, the fighting could drive over a million people — half of Gaza’s population — into catastrophic hunger and potentially cause famine in the south.
“This is the largest number of people facing imminent famine in the world today, and it has only taken five months to occur,” said Matthew Hollingworth, acting World Food Program country director for the Palestinian territories.
“It’s still possible to turn this around but there has to be a cease-fire and there has to be massive amounts of food aid to flow consistently, and people need to have access to clean water and health care,” he said.