80% of people experiencing famine worldwide are located in Gaza

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Truthout
5 Jan 2024 13:06
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On a global scale, a staggering 706,000 individuals are currently experiencing famine, with Gaza alone accounting for 577,000 of that distressing total.

A Palestinian girl fills up a bottle with water from a cistern in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 24 amid the Israeli genocide and total blockade. (AFP via Getty Images)

"Israel's" use of starvation as a weapon of war has resulted in an alarming situation where the vast majority of people worldwide experiencing famine are located in Gaza, as indicated by a recent report by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Truthout highlighted.

The report revealed that approximately 706,000 people globally are in regions experiencing "catastrophic" or "famine" levels of hunger. From that total, approximately 577,000 are Palestinians in Gaza, Truthout reported, citing a recent study from the UN-supported Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

This comes shortly after a recent report by The New Yorker interviewing Arif Husain, chief economist at the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP), shed light on the dire food insecurity situation in Gaza.

"80% of the people, or four out of five people, in famine or a catastrophic type of hunger are in Gaza right now," he said, describing the situation as unprecedented.

"The entire population [of Gaza] of 2.2 million people is in a food-security crisis or a worse situation," he added.

"In the case of Gaza, a quarter of the population is already in that state, meaning they’re in catastrophic levels of hunger. We don’t call it a full famine. Why? Because they haven’t met the other conditions... But if what is happening continues or worsens, pretty soon—within the next six months—we will have a full-fledged famine."

"I’ve been doing this for the past two decades, and I’ve been to all kinds of conflicts and all kinds of crises. And, for me, this is unprecedented because of, one, the magnitude, the scale, the entire population of a particular place," he explained.

To highlight the magnitude of the situation, Arif Husain noted that globally there are 129,000 who are in famine, while in Gaza alone there are 577,000.

Grim reality: Starvation grips Gaza as crisis deepens amid genocide

Gazans are confronting the specter of starvation for the first time in recent history, as reported by United Nations agencies. Aid deliveries have fallen short of the escalating needs in the Strip, resulting in a collapsed food supply system, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.

The report also highlighted that the vast majority of Gaza's 2.2 million inhabitants lack sufficient food, often skipping meals and occasionally enduring several days without any food, as per the World Food Programme.

The UN is currently evaluating whether Gaza meets the formal definition of famine, where two out of every 10,000 residents die from hunger each day, and roughly one in three children is acutely malnourished.

"Israel" is using starvation as a weapon against #Palestinians in #Gaza. #Gazans are struggling amid this brutal Israeli siege on the Strip to find a place to seek refuge, water to drink, and a warm meal to feed their families in this brittle cold winter.

Almost 22,000 Gazans… pic.twitter.com/eN4pfIEwDc
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 31, 2023

The situation in Gaza is dire as “Israel” is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip alongside a total blockade. In further detail, insufficient humanitarian aid entry is restricted to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and "Israel" monitors all incoming goods. It is worth noting that the government in Cairo has prevented Gazans from seeking refuge in Egypt.

"Israel" claimed to double the daily number of aid trucks entering Gaza, exceeding a capacity of 400 trucks, contingent on international organizations managing the increased aid distribution.

However, recent reports indicate that insufficient aid has passed through the Rafah crossing. The blame game continues with "Israel" pointing fingers at the UN for the bottleneck, asserting that a second crossing should be opened, while the UN affirms that "Israel's" hindrances impede aid delivery in Gaza.

In the best-case scenario, this inadequate relief acts as a band-aid, but all too often, it is deployed inadequately and belatedly amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The act of besieging an already vulnerable territory exacerbates the damage, making any aid in the form of biscuits, water, and shrouds insufficient for adequate recovery. A humanitarian catastrophe is imminent, potentially resulting in the loss of thousands of lives.

The report added that the hunger crisis in northern Gaza is particularly severe, exacerbated by the Israeli military's extensive aggression on the Strip over the past two months. This region has been largely cut off from aid distribution, and nearly half of households there are experiencing severe levels of hunger, according to the World Food Programme.