Catastrophic food shortages in Gaza mean mass deaths loom: report

Extreme food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have exceeded famine levels and mass deaths are imminent if there is not an immediate ceasefire and a massive supply of food to areas cut off by fighting, the global hunger monitor said on Monday.

The UN agency relied on assessments from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which said 70% of people in parts of northern Gaza are suffering from the worst food shortages, more than three times the 20% threshold. Considered a famine.

The IPC said there was insufficient mortality data but estimated residents would soon face famine-scale deaths, defined as two out of every 10,000 people dying from starvation or malnutrition and disease every day.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health stated To date, 27 children and 3 adults have died due to malnutrition.

“Actions needed to prevent famine require an immediate political decision to cease fire and an immediate and significant increase in humanitarian and commercial access to all people in Gaza,” the report said.

A total of 1.1 million Gazans – about half the population – are experiencing “catastrophic” food shortages, and about 300,000 people in the region currently face famine-scale mortality.

The prospect of man-made famine in Gaza has drawn some of the strongest criticism from Western allies of Israel as it wages a war against Hamas militants. Deadly attack on Israeli soil on 7 October.

“In Gaza we are no longer on the verge of famine. We are in a state of famine… Hunger is being used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the meeting in Brussels indicated above. Aid to Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Katz responded by saying that Borrell should “stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas crimes.”

Katz said on “Cooperation”.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the IPC report a “shocking indictment” and said Israel must allow full, unrestricted access to all areas of Gaza.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he would scrutinize the report: “It is clear that the status quo is unsustainable. We need urgent action now to avoid famine.”

Israel, which initially allowed aid into Gaza only through two checkpoints on the enclave’s southern edge, now says it is opening up more land routes and allowing sea and air drops. The first ship carrying aid arrived last week.

Aid agencies say they are still unable to deliver enough supplies or distribute them safely, especially in the north.

hospital attack

Amid the rubble of Gaza City, the main settlement in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces launched a massive overnight attack on Shifa hospital. Once the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, it is now one of the only partially functioning medical facilities in the northern part of the territory.

Israel said it had killed more than 20 Hamas fighters in hospitals, including senior Hamas commander Fayeq al-Mabhouh. Hamas said he was a Palestinian police official responsible for overseeing the protection of aid deliveries to Gaza.

Ceasefire talks in the war, now in their sixth month, are due to resume on Monday, with an Israeli delegation headed by the country’s spy chief heading to Qatar. But an Israeli official said it could take at least another two weeks to finalize any deal, an apparent disappointment for Washington, which last week sought a deal before the start of Ramadan.

The White House said President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Monday that military action in Rafah would deepen anarchy in Gaza and they agreed that teams from both sides would meet in Washington to discuss the issue. .

Netanyahu has pledged to advance toward Rafah in Gaza’s southern tip, where more than half of the area’s 2.3 million residents have been sheltering from Israeli attacks from the north.

The leader of Biden’s Democratic U.S. Senate last week called on Israel to replace Netanyahu, saying he had allowed Gaza to suffer too much and thereby damaged Israel’s international standing.

The war began when Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli statistics. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 31,000 Gazans, according to Palestinian health officials.

special forces

The Israeli military said special forces, supported by infantry and tanks, conducted a “precision operation” based on intelligence that Hamas leaders were using Shifa hospital.

“We have arrested more than 200 suspected terrorists and are currently being interrogated,” spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. He said one Israeli soldier was killed in the fighting.

Residents described the fiercest fighting in northern Gaza in months.

Mohammad Ali, a 32-year-old father of two who lives near the hospital, told Reuters via a chat app that the sound of the attack woke neighbors around 1 a.m.

“Soon the tanks started moving, they were heading towards Shifa from the western road, and then the sound of gunfire and explosions became louder and louder,” he said.

Gaza’s health ministry said displaced people inside hospitals had died in fires caused by the attack.