Gaza’s entire population faces critical risk of famine, global hunger monitor says

The entire population of Gaza faces a critical risk of famine, with half a million Palestinian facing starvation in the enclave, a global hunger monitor said today, calling this a major deterioration since its last report in October, Reuters reports.

The latest assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysed a period from 1 April to 10 May this year and projected the situation until the end of September, according to a summary of its key findings.

Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip since early March when it resumed its devastating military campaign, ending a ceasefire that had been in place since January.

The IPC analysis found that 1.95 million people, or 93 per cent of the population in the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave, are living through high levels of acute food insecurity, including 244,000 experiencing the most severe, or “catastrophic”, levels.

IPC’s October analysis had said 133,000 people were in the “catastrophic” category.

The IPC analysis projected that 470,000 people, or 22 per cent of the population, would fall into the catastrophic category by the end of September, with over a million more at “emergency” levels.

“Urgent action is needed to save lives and avert further starvation, further deaths and a descent into famine,” it said.

The IPC, in a brief accompanying its latest analysis, said a plan announced on 5 May by Israeli occupation authorities to set up militarised zones to deliver aid was “estimated to be highly insufficient to meet the population’s essential needs.”

“The proposed distribution mechanisms are likely to create significant access barriers for large segments of the population,” it added.