Food security experts warn of a ‘strong likelihood’ famine is imminent in northern Gaza

“Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert on Friday.

The warning comes just days ahead of a US deadline for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in the besieged strip or face potential restrictions on US military aid.

“If no effective action is taken by stakeholders with influence, the scale of this looming catastrophe is likely to dwarf anything we have seen so far in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023,” the FRC committee added.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that there are between 75,000 and 95,000 people still in northern Gaza.

The Famine Review Committee said that it could be “assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing” in north Gaza.

“Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future,” it added.

The Famine Review Committee reviews findings by the global hunger monitor – an internationally recognised standard known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

The IPC defines famine as when at least 20% of people in an area are suffering extreme food shortages, with at least 30% of children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.

The IPC is an initiative involving UN agencies, national governments and aid groups that sets the global standard on measuring food crises.

The IPC warned last month that the entire Gaza Strip was at risk of famine, while top UN officials last week described the northern Gaza Strip as “apocalyptic” and everyone there was “at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence”.

The amount of aid entering Gaza has plummeted to its lowest level in a year, according to UN data, and the UN has repeatedly accused Israel of hindering and blocking attempts to deliver aid, particularly to Gaza’s north.

The Israeli attacks on northern Gaza has so far killed at least 1,800 Palestinians, according to local officials.

Overall, the Israeli war on Gaza has killed more than 43,500 people and wounded over 102,000 more since 7 October, the majority of them children and women, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Thousands more are missing, presumed dead under the rubble.