GAZA – The world’s leading authority on hunger has officially declared famine in Gaza City for the first time as Israel prepares to launch a military takeover of the Palestinian territory’s capital.
The declaration of famine by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) follows the rising deaths from starvation across Gaza which has been under intense military assault and aid restrictions for nearly two years.
The IPC said in its report Friday morning that famine had been confirmed in the Gaza City — and that it was projected to expand to the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis further south by the end of September if the humanitarian situation does not change.
It said the number of people now experiencing famine in Gaza is nearly 514,000 — around a quarter of the enclave’s population. That is projected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said the famine was preventable, blaming the “systematic obstruction” of aid by Israel and demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu let supplies in on a massive scale.
“It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed, yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel…a famine that will and must haunt us all,” Fletcher told reporters in Geneva, commenting on the release of a report by a global hunger monitor.
Mr. Fletcher called the announcement “a moment of collective shame”.
“Let us get food and other supplies in unimpeded and at the massive scale required. End the retribution,” he added in comments directed at the Israeli leader.
Responding to the report, Israel rejected the famine declaration as “false and biased”.
“Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets,” the Israeli ministry said in a statement.