Famine, mass deaths imminent in north Gaza, warns UN report

CAIRO/JERUSALEM, March 18

Food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have already far exceeded famine levels, and mass death is now imminent without an immediate ceasefire and surge of food into areas cut off by fighting, the global hunger monitor said on Monday.

Catastrophic hunger

The World Food Programme has revealed that 2,10,000 people in northern Gaza are in Phase 5, the highest, which refers to catastrophic hunger

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The UN-backed Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification, or IPC, which formally declares famines, said two of its three criteria — the overall shortage of food and prevalence of malnutrition — had probably already been met.

It did not have full data on death rates, its third criterion, but believed residents in affected areas would be dying of starvation and malnutrition at famine scale imminently, and children under four may already be.

“The actions needed to prevent famine require an immediate political decision for a ceasefire together with a significant and immediate increase in humanitarian and commercial access to the entire population of Gaza,” it said. In all, 1.1 million Gazans, around half the population, were experiencing “catastrophic” shortages of food, the worst category, with around 300,000 in the areas now facing the prospect of famine-scale death rates.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and discussed the situation in Rafah and efforts to increase aid to Gaza, the White House said. — Reuters