LAST UPDATE | 28 Feb

THE WORLD FOOD Programme has warned that famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza as Israeli forces block aid to the area.

Humanitarian groups say they have not been able to provide aid to northern Gaza since 23 January and the aid coming in to the southern half is vastly insufficient. 

AFP was unable to independently verify the deaths.

Today, the Palestinian health ministry said at least 29,954 people, mostly women and children, had been killed since the current conflict began.

A spokesperson for the health ministry said that two children died of “dehydration and malnutrition” at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, and called for “immediate action” from international institutions to prevent more such deaths. AFP was unable to independently verify the deaths.

WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau has told the UN Security Council that “if nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza”.

Ramesh Rajasingham of the UN humanitarian office OCHA similarly warned of “almost inevitable” widespread starvation.

“Here we are, at the end of February, with at least 576,000 people in Gaza — one-quarter of the population — one step away from famine, with one in six children under two years of age in northern Gaza suffering from acute malnutrition and wasting,” Rajasingham said.

In a sign of growing desperation among Gazans over living conditions, a rare protest was held today in the far-southern city of Rafah, packed with nearly 1.5 million Palestinians – many of them displaced by the fighting.

“The situation is very difficult in Gaza. We can’t afford things,” said Rafah resident Abdulrahman Abu Khuder at the rally over soaring prices of basic commodities.

Khamis Shallah, displaced from Gaza City, said one kilo of sugar now costs “between 80 and 100 shekel (€20-€25), and the price of yeast in 100 shekel”.

On Monday, the Jordanian army said it had conducted humanitarian aid drops of food and other supplies into Gaza by air.

A statement said that Jordanian forces made “four air drops carrying aid for the people of Gaza”, one of them with the help of a French plane.

The operation was “aimed at delivering aid to the population directly and drop it along the coast of the Gaza Strip from north to south” and was made up of “relief and food supplies, including ready-made meals of high nutritional value, to alleviate the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip”.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths wrote to the Security Council last week to urge members to prohibit “the use of starvation of civilian population as a method of warfare”. 

97% of groundwater in Gaza is “reportedly unfit for human consumption” and agricultural production is beginning to collapse, according to Maurizio Martina, Deputy Director General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Almost 1,000 trucks loaded with 15,000 metric tons of food are ready and waiting at the Egypt border, according to a UN spokesperson, and the WFP has said it would be able to scale up to feed the 2.2 million people in Gaza.

However, Israeli forces are “systematically” blocking access to Gaza, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for OCHA, and have denied all planned aid convoys into northern Gaza since 23 January.

Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Miller, has argued that “it is not Israel who is holding up these trucks,” instead placing the blame on the UN, which he said must distribute aid “more effectively.”

He said there is “no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid that can be sent to the civilian population of Gaza” and that Israel has only denied 16% of requests to deliver aid in 2024, saying those were due to risks the shipments could end up with Hamas.

Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators are trying to facilitate a ceasefire that would involve a six-week pause of attacks and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, and potentially the release of several hundred Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said a deal could possibly could be reached by the weekend.

Since 7 October, when Hamas launched an attack in Israel that killed around 1,160 people, Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed at least 29,878 people, mostly women and children.

Additional reporting by AFP