More than 576,600 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger, according to a United Nations (UN) report released today.
“The entire population of Gaza, approximately 2.2 million people, is at crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity,” said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, which includes data from the World Food Program (WFP), other UN- these agencies and non-governmental organizations.
The report said 26 percent of Gaza’s population, about 576,600 people, “have exhausted their food supplies and coping capacities and are facing catastrophic hunger and starvation.”
“WFP has been warning for weeks about this looming disaster. Tragically, without the safe, consistent approach we’ve been looking for, the situation is desperate and no one in Gaza is safe from starvation,” said Cindy McCain, WFP’s executive director.
If the current situation of “intense conflict and limited access to humanitarian aid continues”, the IPC predicted that there is a “risk of famine in the next six months”.
WFP food security experts have already found that Gazans “have exhausted all their resources, livelihoods have collapsed, bakeries have been destroyed, shops are empty and families are unable to find food,” the report said.
People told WFP staff that they often go days without food and that many adults go hungry so that children can eat, it added.
“These are not just numbers, behind these alarming statistics are individual children, women and men,” said WFP Chief Economist Arif Husain.
“The complexity, magnitude and speed with which this crisis has developed is unprecedented,” he added.
Repeating the call for a humanitarian ceasefire, McCain added:
“We cannot stand by and watch people starve. A humanitarian approach is needed now to keep supplies flowing to Gaza and for civilians to safely receive life-saving aid.”
The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 20,057, the Ministry of Health in the blockaded enclave announced on Friday.
At least 53,320 people have been injured in Israeli attacks since October 7, the ministry added.
“At least 390 people were killed and 734 were injured in the last 48 hours when communication in the Gaza Strip was cut off,” the statement said.
Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7.
The official death toll in Israel is 1,200, AA writes.
