A severe famine threat looms over the Gaza Strip, with almost the entire population experiencing acute food insecurity or worse, including half a million facing starvation, according to a recent global hunger monitor.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (report, released on Tuesday, revealed that over 20 percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million people endure entire days without food amid an eight-month Israeli war and siege.
More than half of Palestinian households have resorted to selling their clothes for food, while a third have scavenged through trash to find items to sell, the UN-supported report stated.
In March, the IPC cautioned that famine in Gaza was imminent, predicting it could occur by the end of May.
This report intensified pressure on Israel, which had enforced a stringent siege on the Palestinian enclave, blocking essential food and medical supplies.
Independent UN investigators have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, constituting collective punishment of civilians.
Amid global outcry, Israeli authorities “slightly” improved food access in some regions, easing the immediate famine risk projected in March, as per the IPC.
However, the situation has worsened recently, with residents reporting renewed severe Israeli restrictions, heightening the starvation crisis once more.
Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, including the seizure of the Rafah crossing, has obstructed the few humanitarian aid routes into the enclave.
The IPC warned that the improvements observed post-March should not “allow room for complacency” regarding the famine risk, which could escalate in the coming weeks and months.
“The situation in Gaza remains catastrophic and there is a high and sustained risk of famine across the whole Gaza Strip,” the report emphasized.
The report also highlighted the shrinking humanitarian space in Gaza and the dwindling ability to deliver aid safely, noting the “recent trajectory is negative and highly unstable.”
The IPC, which analyzes data from humanitarian partners on the ground, projected that 96 percent of Gaza’s population will face at least high levels of acute food insecurity through September.
Of these, over 495,000 people are expected to experience “an extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities.”
In addition to widespread destruction of homes, markets, and civilian infrastructure by Israel, nearly 60 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land has been damaged or destroyed, significantly impacting the food system, the IPC reported.
The risk of disease outbreaks is heightened by the “concentration of displaced populations into areas with significantly reduced water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), health, and other essential infrastructure,” it added.
Nearly 70 percent of Gaza’s hygiene facilities were damaged or destroyed by the end of May.
The report warned that Gaza’s health systems face potential collapse in the coming months, raising the “likelihood of an epidemic outbreak” and the possibility of a “catastrophe of unprecedented magnitude compared to the suffering already witnessed in Gaza since October.”
The IPC attributes sustained hostilities, displacement, and restricted humanitarian access over recent months as key factors driving the current crisis.
“Only the cessation of hostilities in conjunction with sustained humanitarian access can reduce the risk of a famine.”
Responding to the report, chief executive of Oxfam UK, Halima Begum, remarked, “The slight improvement of conditions in the north of Gaza shows that Israel can end human suffering when it chooses – but just as quickly those gains can vanish when access is again constrained, as the report warns is happening now.
“Yet again, Oxfam urgently calls on the UK government to do more to pressure Israel to allow aid to reach more than two million people living in these intolerable conditions and to stop adding fuel to the fire by permitting the continued sale of arms to Israel.”
