The alerts are multiplying. According to the latest report from the World Food Program (WFP), released Thursday, 93% of Gazans are in a situation of acute food insecurity. And 26% have exhausted their food reserves, now facing catastrophic levels of hunger. “There is a risk of famine in the next six months if the current situation of intense conflict and restricted humanitarian access persists,” the agency explains.
“For many families in the Gaza Strip, the threat of dying of hunger is already real,” UNICEF warned in a press release published Friday. Israeli strikes and ground fighting continue this Saturday, December 23 in the Palestinian enclave, where the population and humanitarian organizations have been demanding increased aid for several weeks. It should take effect after the adoption on Friday of a resolution to this effect by the UN Security Council.
The text calls for the “immediate” and “large-scale” delivery of humanitarian aid to the territory under Israeli blockade and shelled by the Jewish state since October 7, in response to the Hamas attack on its soil which caused 1140 deaths according to Jerusalem.
In total, according to the Hamas terrorist group which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, Israeli operations caused 20,057 deaths. Some 1.9 million people have fled their homes, or 85% of the population, estimates the UN. The concrete scope of the text adopted on the ground is still uncertain, since the humanitarian aid, which is trickling into the Gaza Strip, is considered insufficient to meet the needs of the population – 80% dependent on aid. humanitarian situation before the start of the conflict.
“Nearly 1.2 million people are facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity and (…) famine thresholds for acute food insecurity have already been exceeded,” specifies UNICEF. In detail, “all children under the age of five” – there are estimated to be 35,000 – are exposed to a “high risk” of severe malnutrition and “avoidable deaths”. “In the coming weeks, at least 10,000 children under the age of five will suffer from the most serious form of malnutrition,” adds the UN agency.
In a message published Friday on X, World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom says that “people are selling their goods in exchange for food.” “Four out of five households in northern Gaza and half of displaced households in the south go entire days and nights without eating,” he adds.
In mid-December, Israel was accused by the organization Human Rights Watch of using hunger against civilians in Gaza, “which may constitute a war crime”. On October 9, the Jewish state decreed a total blockade on Palestinian territory. “No electricity, no food, no gas (…). We fight animals and we act accordingly,” summarized his Minister of Defense.
In late October, thousands of Gaza residents “stormed” into warehouses and distribution centers of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) to seize flour and “survival products from base”. A press release then expressed concern about a “collapse” of civil order.
