Food experts predict ‘imminent’ famine in Northern Gaza

The acute food shortage in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip has become so severe that “famine is imminent” and the enclave is on the verge of a “major acceleration of deaths and malnutrition,” a report from a global authority on food security and nutrition said Monday.

The group, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global initiative, which was set up in 2004 by UN agencies and international relief groups, has sounded the alarm about famine only twice before: in Somalia in 2011 and in South Sudan in 2017.

The warning came as Israeli forces again raided Shifa Hospital in the northern part of the enclave Monday, in an operation, setting off an hourslong battle that resulted in casualties.

The raid at Shifa, in Gaza City, raised questions about the level of control that Israeli forces have over northern Gaza. In December, the Israeli military said it was nearing “full operational control” there.

Taken together, the fighting and the severe food shortage underlined the chaos and desperation in Gaza after 23 weeks of war. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres renewed his call Monday for “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire” and said that the report on imminent famine was “an appalling indictment of conditions on the ground for civilians.”

In recent weeks, some foreign leaders have been increasingly blunt in blaming Israel for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. At the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, accused Israel of “provoking famine.”

Starvation is being used as “a weapon of war,” he said.

The entire population of Gaza is experiencing 'severe levels of acute food insecurity', US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, underscoring the urgency for increasing the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.

'According to the most respected measure of these things, 100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That's the first time an entire population has been so classified,' Blinken told a press conference in the Philippines where he is on an official visit. Blinken's remarks came on the eve of his return to the Middle East, this time to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and ramp up aid deliveries.

A United Nations-backed food security assessment warned Monday that half of Gazans are experiencing 'catastrophic' hunger, with famine projected to hit the north of the territory by May unless there is urgent intervention. Martin Griffiths, the UN's humanitarian chief, has called for Israel to allow unfettered aid into the besieged Palestinian territory, saying there was 'no time to lose'.

Donors have turned to deliveries by air or sea, but these are not viable alternatives to land deliveries, UN agencies say. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership said Monday that while the technical criteria for a famine had not yet been met, 'all evidence points towards a major acceleration of deaths and malnutrition'. Citing UN data, Blinken said 100 percent of the population in Gaza needed humanitarian assistance, compared with 80 percent in Sudan and 70 percent in Afghanistan. 'This only underscores both the urgency, the imperative, of making this the priority,' Blinken said of aid deliveries. 'We need more, we need it to be sustained, and we need it to be a priority if we're going to effectively address the needs of people.' Blinken is in Manila as part of a brief Asia tour aimed at reinforcing US support for regional allies against China.

During a joint press conference with his Philippine counterpart, Blinken was asked about steps he was taking to address the lack of access to Gaza for foreign journalists. 'There are profound security considerations in an active war zone and those have to be taken into account,' Blinken said. 'But the basic principle of access for journalists is something we stand strongly behind.'

Some parts originally appeared in The New York Times.