A State Department official said that there is a “significant risk” of mass starvation throughout Gaza, and some regions of the Strip are “quite possibly” already in a state of famine. Millions of Palestinians are on the brink of starvation as a result of Israel’s brutal six-month military assault and a blockade on aid entering the Strip.
Speaking with Reuters, an unnamed State Department official said, “While we can say with confidence that famine is a significant risk in the south and center but not present, in the north, it is both a risk and quite possibly is present in at least some areas.”
The official’s assessment matches a warning put out by the international watchdog on starvation. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released a new report last week predicting famine in Gaza will begin within the next two months. For a famine to be declared, at least two per 10,000 people must be dying of deprivation each day.
“The latest evidence confirms that famine is imminent in the northern governorates of the Gaza Strip and projected to occur anytime between mid-March and May 2024,” the IPC report found. “The entire population in the Gaza Strip (2.23 million) is facing high levels of acute food insecurity. This includes half of the population in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe), an increase of 530,000 people (92 percent) from the previous analysis.”
The starvation is worse in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are struggling to survive. On Sunday, the UN aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, announced that Tel Aviv would not allow shipments of food or other assistance into the area.
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/03/29/state-dept-says-parts-of-gaza-likely-experiencing-famine/
