- According to the IPC, access to food across Gaza is “now alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous.”
- Seven more reported deaths from starvation in Gaza as the enclave descends to the brink of famine.
The World Food Program (WFP) has issued an urgent “call for action,” urging that all efforts be made to prevent suffering before a famine declaration after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor released its latest report.
Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a surge in hunger-related deaths with the latest data indicating that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.
The World Food Program has said:
“This is not a warning. This is a call to action. This is unlike anything we have seen in this century.”
The IPC said on Tuesday that “the worst-case scenario of famine” is currently unfolding in Gaza with an intensified conflict, displacement and plummeting access to food.
According to the IPC, people’s access to food across Gaza is now “extremely perilous”, with more than 1,000 people killed since May 27 while trying to get food.
This comes after Israel ended its three-month total blockade in May and, alongside the US, took control of aid distribution centres, forming the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, limiting the number of sites to four from more than 200 before the total blockade began in March.
Within the Israeli- and US-run humanitarian aid points, more than 770 Palestinians have been reported killed by Israeli soldiers and US contractors, with confirmed reports of indiscriminate killings of desperate Palestinians seeking food.
In addition to this, it was reported that less humanitarian aid has entered Gaza during this period, with only food being sent rather than the basic medical supplies needed to combat growing diseases.
This also comes after the UAE and Jordan participated in airdrops of aid into Gaza, a move seen as symbolic and ineffective by UN officials to counter the cataclysmic starvation taking place.
