North Gaza experiencing 'full-blown famine' heading south: WFP chief
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Cindy McCain says that the northern Gaza Strip is experiencing famine, urging quick action to deliver aid to the besieged territory.
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Palestinians line up for food during in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, on January 9, 2024. (AP)
The World Food Program (WFP) has said that Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip are experiencing "full-blown famine".
The United Nations agency's Executive Director Cindy McCain made the remark during an interview for NBC, describing what Palestinians are experiencing in the northern Gaza Strip as "horror".
Although the entire Gaza Strip is besieged by Israeli occupation forces, the northern Gaza Strip has been split from the rest of the territory, after Israeli occupation forces took control of the Netzarim Axis. This has hindered the flow of aid to the northern Gaza Strip, as Israeli occupation forces have had direct control over the gateway to the north, attacking aid convoys and Palestinians queuing for aid on multiple occasions.
"There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south," McCain declared.
Supplies to the northern Gaza Strip have been constricted since March by Israeli occupation forces, who in that period invaded multiple hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including the al-Shifa Medical Center, and assassinated Palestinian security officials managing aid delivery processes in the area.
Israeli regime forces Palestinians into famine
As a result, acute malnutrition rates among children soared from 1% to 30% from October 2023 to March 2024, while international organizations expect matters to quickly deteriorate in May.
It is worth noting that organizations such as the World Central Kitchen are only operating kitchens in the southern and central Gaza Strip, leaving Gaza City and other towns and refugee camps abandoned.
The Israeli occupation is employing several policies to make life unbearable in the northern Gaza Strip, attempting to forcibly displace Palestinians southwards by making life unbearable in the area due to the absence of basic needs.
Moreover, a US humanitarian envoy in Gaza affirmed in April that famine looms over all 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza. David Satterfield, who extensively served in the Middle East, said, "This is not a point in debate. It is an established fact, which the United States, its experts, the international community, its experts assess and believe is real."
Satterfield also noted that Rafah, in addition to the north, is currently facing the most devastating humanitarian challenge in Gaza, describing the southern region that was once dubbed a "safe zone" by the Israelis as "a miserable place to be from any health-related, shelter-related standpoint."
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