IPC warns of impending famine in northern Gaza

A U.N.-backed food security report concluded on Monday that some 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza face looming famine between now and May.

Amid Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza, humanitarian aid groups have been warning that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are starving as too few aid trucks are allowed into the area through Israeli security checkpoints. But the new report is the most concrete yet of the dire plight Gaza residents face.

The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report said famine could occur at any time in the coming weeks, with an estimated 210,000 people in northern Gaza facing the most catastrophic risk of hunger.

“Ongoing conflict and the almost complete lack of access to the northern provinces for humanitarian organizations and commercial trucks are likely to exacerbate vulnerabilities and extremely limited food supplies… as well as access to health care, water and sanitation,” the report said.

“This is a completely man-made disaster,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. He said the report “is evidence of the need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”

“I call on the Israeli authorities to ensure full and unrestricted access to Gaza for humanitarian supplies and on the international community to fully support our humanitarian efforts. We must act immediately to prevent the unthinkable, unacceptable and unjustifiable.” Guterres said.

Before Hamas launched a shocking attack on Israel on October 7 and the Israeli counteroffensive in Gaza began, the United Nations estimated that 1 percent of the territory’s population faced severe malnutrition. But the number increased to 9.1% in January and 16.5% in February, with even more children under the age of two affected, up to 29.2% of the population, the report said.

“The upward trend in non-traumatic mortality is also expected to accelerate, leading to the possibility that all famine thresholds may soon be breached,” the UN said.

Many countries have pressured Israel to agree to a ceasefire to end the war, now in its sixth month, while Israel’s main ally, the United States, is trying to negotiate a more limited six-week truce.

Hamas’s initial attacks killed 1,200 Israelis and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom were women and children. Israel says the Palestinian death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that while Israel was trying to negotiate a short-term ceasefire, it had no intention of ending the fighting until Hamas’ control of the narrow enclave along the Mediterranean coastline was completely eliminated.

He said Israeli efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians were often thwarted by Hamas militants and gangs who robbed aid trucks and stole food for themselves.