THERE IS AN “imminent and substantial likelihood of famine” across the Gaza Strip, according to the UN’s famine review committee.
More than 130,000 people are facing food insecurity in Gaza, according to the committee’s latest report where it raised the famine risk level to an emergency and warned of “critical” and “rapidly deteriorating” levels of food.
The committee’s report comes as the United States’ deadline to Israel to increase the levels of humanitarian situation into Gaza was surpassed, set after four children were killed in an Israeli strike on a polio vaccination centre.
It makes a number of immediate recommendations to all parties involved in the conflict, that the famine review committee says would be different between life and starvation.
The entry of unimpeded supplies and the end of Israel’s siege on northern Gaza are at the top of the list.
A ceasefire on all health facilities, such as hospitals and vaccination centres, as well as on essential civilian infrastructure and the restitution of human health with resupplies are recommended, with equal importance.
Lastly, the committee recommend that water, sanitation and hygiene systems be established around the region at the earliest chance and that any aid shipments into Gaza allow for the ‘winterisation’ of the climate with sufficient clothes and other resources.
When finalising its report at the end of October and after the committee had agreed to raise the emergency level, increased conflict and displacement, scarce food availability, dwindling food deliveries and low levels of humanitarian aid were reported.
Among this, the committee grew concerned over reports on 7 October this year that people in northern Gaza had been “trapped” in their homes by the Israeli military and tallies that showed only 58 food trucks per day were being allowed into Gaza by Israel.
The number of deliveries represents the lowest levels of humanitarian aid being allowed into the region since November 2023 as well as lower than any other period this year. In northern Gaza, food security and acute malnutrition is “rapidly deteriorating”.
Access to food in the entire region has plummeted and the price of everyday supplies such as cooking equipment, diapers, food and fuel has dramatically increased in price.
Attacks on hospitals and the arrests of medical staff by the Israeli military have “accelerated” in recent weeks, according to the report, drastically impacting the standard and the availability of medical care in Gaza.
Also since the report was finalised, the Israeli Government moved to place a ban on UNRWA, the essential UN agency which cares for and protects Palestinian refugees across the region, and its operations over concerns to its links to terrorism.
An internal probe found that nine people who were employed by the agency, which employs 13,000 people in Gaza in total, “may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October”.
The famine review committee said if the laws are enforced it could have “extremely serious consequences for humanitarian operations” in Gaza and wider regions for years after.
The report says: “It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas.
“Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future.”
It adds: “The unprecedented speed of deterioration and deviation from the most-likely scenario requires an extremely urgent response – in days not weeks.”
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