Famine stalking across besieged Gaza Strip, 500k face starvation: Report

A report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative announced the Gaza Strip “is still confronted with a critical risk of famine” after over a year and a half of devastating war, with the vast majority of its approximately 2.1 million people at severe risk.

Some 70 days after the Israeli military halted the entry of food, water, medicine and all other life-saving supplies into Gaza, the report said “goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks”.

“The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation.”

Approximately 93 percent of Gaza’s population is experiencing acute food shortages, it added.

Conditions have significantly worsened since the previous IPC report, released in October, with a higher percentage of the population facing more severe levels of food insecurity.

The entire population is expected to face “crisis” or worse levels of acute food insecurity if the Israeli siege persists. One in five is thought likely to face starvation between May and September.

Authorities in the bombarded territory said last week that at least 57 people had starved to death as a result of Israel’s blockade.

Widespread acute malnutrition is anticipated, the analysis adds, especially in mostly destroyed northern Gaza and in Rafah in the southernmost part of the Strip.

A continued blockade “would likely result in further mass displacement within and across governorates”, the report said.

“The vast majority of people in the Gaza Strip would not have access to food, water, shelter, and medicine. This would exacerbate civil unrest and competition over remaining scarce resources, further eroding whatever limited community coping and support mechanisms remain,” it added.

Food prices in Gaza are soaring excessively. The IPC report points to a 3,000 percent increase in the price of wheat flour since February in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south.

The analysis calls for “urgent action” to end the hostilities, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and protect civilians and aid workers who have been killed by the Israeli army in record numbers.

According to the latest figures on Monday by Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli forces have killed at least 52,862 Palestinians and wounded 119,648 since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, which killed an estimated 1,200 people and resulted in 250 people taken captive into Gaza.