- 85% of Gaza’s population has entered the fifth and most dangerous stage of malnourishment.
- A broad consensus of scholars predicted that mass hunger would begin to exact its deadly toll just about now.
The final point of no return has been reached in Gaza according to Israeli analyst Ori Goldberg.
85% of Gazans are now in a state of unprecedented hunger meaning, even if humanitarian aid flooded Gaza tomorrow, a lot of the damage and pain caused by starvation is irreversible, potentially still leading to thousands of deaths.
19 people were reported to have died on Monday alone according to Gazan officials with 3 infant babies also reported to have died of starvation last week.
Dr. Mohammed Abu Afash, the director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society spoke to Al Jazeera and said: “Malnutrition among children has reached its highest levels.”
The death toll from starvation has increased dramatically since Israel and the United States initiated the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), effectively controlling all the inflow of aid into Gaza while also limiting the amount of food centers in Gaza.
Before Israel’s 3 month total blockade that partially ended in May, there were more than 200 aid distribution sites in Gaza, since then Israel and the US have limited the aid sites to four, all of which are under control of the GHF with the presence of Israeli troops and armed US contractors, something that hadn’t been considered necessary before the GHF.
There have been numerous reports of Israeli troops and US contractors firing on Gazan civilians in these aid sites with the amount of food being distributed far less than it was before the GHF was set up with a reported 92 deaths on Sunday alone according to Al Jazeera.
On top of that, there have also been reports that some of the aid distributed by the GHF had been laced with opioids, a highly addictive drug that can be deadly.
The World Food Program (WFP) had spoken about the hunger crisis and said it: “has reached new levels of desperation.”
“People are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance.”
“Malnutrition is surging with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment. Nearly 1 person in 3 is not eating for days.”
“Only a massive scale-up in food aid distributions can stabilize this spiralling situation, calm anxieties, and rebuild the trust within communities that more food is coming.”
