Extreme food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have already exceeded starvation levels and mass deaths are inevitable unless the conflict ends immediately and food reaches the area cut off by the fighting, the global hunger watchdog said yesterday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), whose estimates are relied upon by United Nations agencies, said 70 percent of people in parts of northern Gaza are now affected by the most severe level of food shortages, far exceeding the 20 percent threshold for hunger, Reuters reported.
In a famine, food shortages lead first to widespread malnutrition and then to mass deaths. The IPC said that malnutrition is probably already at the level of starvation. He did not have enough data on death rates, but he estimated that residents would soon die of starvation, while children under the age of four may already be dying.
"The actions needed to prevent starvation require an urgent political decision to cease fire together with a significant and urgent increase in humanitarian and commercial access to the entire population of Gaza," the IPC said.
"Every effort must be made to ensure the delivery of food, water, medicine and the protection of civilians, as well as the provision of health, water and sanitation services, as well as energy."
Reuters writes that a total of 1,1 million citizens of Gaza, about half of the population, are facing "catastrophic" food shortages.
The head of EU diplomacy said that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war
With the prospect of a man-made famine in Gaza, Israel has drawn the harshest criticism from its Western allies since it launched a war against Hamas militants following their deadly attack on Israeli territory on October 7.
"In Gaza, we are no longer on the brink of starvation, but in a state of famine that affects thousands of people," said the head of the European Union's diplomacy, Josep Borrell, at the opening of a conference in Brussels on humanitarian aid for Gaza.
"It is unacceptable. Starvation is being used as a weapon of war. Israel is causing hunger."
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded that Borel should "stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against the crimes of Hamas."
Katz said on the X Network that Israel has allowed "massive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air and sea for anyone who wants to help," but that aid has been "violently disrupted" by Hamas militants with the "cooperation" of the humanitarian agency UNRWA.
Israel, which initially allowed aid to enter Gaza through only two checkpoints on the enclave's southern perimeter, says it is opening more routes by land, sea and air.
Aid agencies say they cannot yet deliver enough supplies or distribute them safely, especially in the north, without better access and security, which Israel needs to ensure.
In the ruins of Gaza City in the north of the enclave, Israeli forces carried out a major attack on the Al Shifa hospital the night before last. Once the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, it is now one of the few medical institutions still partially functioning in the north of the territory.
Israel said it killed 20 Hamas fighters in the hospital, including commander Fayek al-Mabhouh. The Hamas-linked Shebab news agency said Mahbuh was a security official overseeing the protection of aid shipments.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that displaced people in the hospital died in the fire caused by the attack.
The Israeli military said troops entered Al Shifa based on intelligence that the hospital was being used by senior Hamas leaders. The soldiers were fired upon and returned fire. One soldier was killed.
Yesterday, Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts to increase aid to Gaza
Ceasefire negotiations were supposed to resume yesterday and an Israeli delegation led by the head of the spy service was to travel to Qatar. However, an Israeli official said any agreement was likely to take at least another two weeks.
US President Joe Biden spoke yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about efforts to increase aid to Gaza, the White House announced. It was the first phone conversation between the two leaders since February 15, amid sharp tensions between Israel and its closest ally over Netanyahu's handling of the Gaza war.
The war began when Hamas fighters invaded Israel, killing 1.200 people and abducting 253 people, according to Israeli figures. Since then, Israel's offensive has killed more than 31.000 Gazans, according to Palestinian health officials.
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