ROME – Famine is “now unfolding” in Gaza, with thousands of children malnourished and hunger-related deaths on the rise among the youngest, a UN-backed monitor warned on Tuesday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative said that air drops over Gaza will not be enough to avert the “humanitarian catastrophe.”
“The worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip,” said the UN-backed group of organizations, used as a monitor to gauge malnutrition.
“Immediate, unimpeded” humanitarian access into Gaza was the only way to stop rapidly rising “starvation and death”, it said.
The IPC issued their warning “alert” after days of aid groups sounding the alarm over hunger-related deaths in Gaza.
Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation. AFP
The IPC said its latest data shows that “famine thresholds” have been reached in “most of the Gaza Strip”.
Hunger-related deaths of young children, it said, were rising.
“Over 20,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished.”
Children under the age of five were dying of hunger, “with at least 16 reported deaths since 17 July”, IPC said.
“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rie in hunger-related deaths,” it said Tuesday. AFP
