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full screen Emergency aid is dropped by parachute from the sky down to the northern Gaza Strip. The picture was taken in March this year. Photo: Leo Correa/AP/TT
Parts of northern Gaza – where Israel is conducting a major offensive – are at high risk of starvation, hunger experts warn.
According to the warning, which came from the UN-linked Famine Review Committee (FRC) panel of experts on Friday, the humanitarian situation throughout Gaza is “extremely serious and rapidly deteriorating”. It is worst in the north.
The FRC flags that the threshold for starvation “may already have been crossed but otherwise will be crossed in the near future”.
The panel’s four experts are part of the UN-supported IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), which together with several other organizations monitors global hunger and food security.
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The experts call on all parties to the Gaza war to take action “within days, not weeks, to alleviate this catastrophic situation”.
The warning follows an October 17 IPC report which claimed that Palestinians throughout the area are facing a food emergency. The report also concluded that, in the worst case scenario, all of Gaza could be plunged into a famine between November and April, a scenario that is not considered unlikely under the current circumstances.
Since publication, the situation has worsened further, including after Israel essentially sealed off northern Gaza last month, with significantly lower levels of humanitarian supplies and even worse access to food.
Severely reduced emergency assistance
The US recently demanded that Israel let in at least 350 truckloads of food and other supplies per day. In October, an average of 57 trucks a day rolled across the border into Gaza, according to figures from Cogat, the unit within the Israeli Defense Ministry that handles civilian affairs in Gaza. The UN, for its part, says that the figure is significantly lower – just 37 daily deliveries.
Figures from the UN food program WFP have previously shown that the number of trucks with emergency aid reaching Gaza before the outbreak of war was 500 per day.