The unsupported Food Security Agency warns that “the worst-case scenario of hunger” is unfolding in Gaza. This is the most severe warning as starvation spreads and Israel is increasing international pressure to allow more food to the territory.
The Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC) said “conflicts and evacuations have plummeted to unprecedented levels, as access to food and other important items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels,” adding that “it indicates that widespread hunger, malnutrition and disease are causing an uptick in starvation.”
The IPC said the alerts are intended to “take urgent attention to rapidly worsening humanitarian situations,” but do not constitute a formal classification of hunger. “Given the latest information and data that has become available, the new IPC analysis will be carried out without delay,” he added.
More than 20,000 children were found to be treated for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, and more than 3,000 said they were severely malnourished, according to the IPC.
“Latest data show that the hunger threshold has been reached in most of the Gaza Strip due to food consumption and acute malnutrition in Gaza,” the alert allows for “unhindered, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian responses” seeking “immediate action.”
In May, the IPC reported that the entire population of the enclave had experienced “high levels of acute food security” and that the territory was experiencing the “high risk” of hunger, the most severe hunger crisis.
Israel has pressured the international community to break the lockdown, grant assistance to Gaza and end the war.
In some of the strongest remarks about the crisis, President Donald Trump said there was a “real starvation” in Gaza on Monday, contradicting previous statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It’s a real starrgic thing,” Trump told reporters in Turnberry, Scotland. “I see it and you can’t fake it, so we’ll be even more involved.”
Trump added that the US will establish a “food centre” in Gaza to deal with the crisis.
Vice President JD Vance lamented the images coming from the besieged territory.
“I don’t know if you saw these images or not. I have some really, really heartbreaking cases. I have a small child who is clearly starving to death,” Vance told reporters Monday when he visited Canton, Ohio.
“Israel has to do more to help that,” he said.
Over the weekend, Israel announced a daily “tactical suspension in military operations” in three parts of Gaza, allowing more assistance to reach people. The military said the move “refutes to false claims of intentional starvation in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel also allows foreign countries to broadcast aid to the territory, but in the past it was deemed costly, dangerous and inadequate by the United Nations and other aid groups.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday that more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed on the territory since Israel’s war with Hamas began almost two years ago.
The ministry reported 113 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 60,034.
The announcement soon dims hopes for a ceasefire after the speech was dissolved without agreement last week.
The war began after Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
Gaza authorities do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters when reporting casualties figures, but the Ministry of Health and the United Nations say that the majority of deaths are women and children. And it is believed that the true casualties can be much higher, with thousands still buried under the tiled rub.
Israel does not object that a considerable number of Palestinian civilians were killed in the war in Gaza. However, Hamas Controlled Health Ministry figures are exaggerated and have long argued that Hamas is using it as a “human shield” among civilians.
On Monday, Israeli major human rights groups became the first to make a claim, accusing them of “violating genocide against Gaza’s Palestinians.”
B’tselem said he came to its “clear conclusions” along with an investigation into Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip and its horrific consequences, as well as a statement by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders on the targets of the attack.
The second Israeli group, Human Rights Physician Israel (PHRI), has announced that it has joined B’tselem in calling Israel’s actions in the Gaza genocide. We have published another legal and medical analysis documenting what is called the “intentional and systematic extinction of the Gaza health system.”
Israeli government spokesman David Mensah has rejected the report. “We have freedom of speech in this country, but we strongly reject this claim,” he told reporters, adding that Israel has allowed assistance to Gaza.
