CNN
–
One in five in the Gaza Strip faces hunger, and the whole territory is facing hunger, a report of new UN assistance warns after nearly three months of lockdowns of humanitarian aid that Israel is critically needed.
The warning says that things have worsened since Israel launched a new attack on the enclave in March, as the United Nations and several NGOs, as well as a civilian in Gaza, is struggling to access food, medicine and clean water in March.
The entire population of Enclave has experienced “high levels of acute food security,” and the territory lies at the “high risk” of hunger, the most serious type of hunger, the Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC) said in its latest report on Monday.
“Products that are essential to people’s survival are expected to be exhausted or run out in the coming weeks,” the IPC said. The food is gone, and the barely leftover items are on sale at exorbitant prices that are rarely available, it said.
Israel imposed a humanitarian blockade on Gaza on March 2nd, blocking food, medical supplies and other aid to more than 2 million Palestinians living on the territory. Israel says the blockade is intended to pressure Hamas to release hostages held in enclaves, along with the expansion of the troops of Gaza’s artillery fire, but international organisations say it violates international law that accuses Israel of using hunger as a weapon of war.
The IPC report warned that there is a “high risk” of hunger between the end of September and the end of September, and that most people are in Gaza without getting food, water, shelters or medicines.
“Only an immediate and sustained halt of hostility and the resumption of humanitarian assistance provision can prevent a descent into hunger,” the report said.
In IPC systems (a five-phase scale used to measure food anxiety severity), hunger can only be declared if the data indicates that a certain threshold is met. These conditions are as follows: At least 20% of all households need to face extreme food shortages, over 30% of children become acutely malnourished, and at least two in 10,000 people die daily due to malnutrition or disease interactions.
According to the IPC, the initial threshold has already been met. Approximately 22% of the population – about 469,500 people are likely to experience “devastating” food insecurity, the highest stage on the IPC scale between May and September, the report says.
David Mensah, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, said on Monday that “hunger has never happened” in Gaza, if there is hunger in Gaza, it will be caused by Hamas taking away humanitarian aid.
While heavily pinned his responsibility for rising hunger levels in Hamas, Israeli Ambassador Mike Huckabee acknowledged the rapidly worsening situation in Gaza on Friday, telling CNN:
Since March, new Israeli assaults have driven over 430,000 people, the report said, disrupted the distribution of critical services and critical supply.
According to an IPC report, all 25 bakeries run by the Un’s World Food Program (WFP) were forced to shutter in early April due to a supply shortage, with food shortages in most of the 177 hot meal kitchens. And food prices are rising sharply.
Flour prices have increased by 3,000% since February, with a 55-pound bag of flour that can run between $235 and $520, the report said.
Most at-risk pregnant women and children
Children and pregnant women are particularly at increased risk. Approximately 71,000 acute malnutrition is expected among children under the age of five between April 2025 and March 2026, the report states. He said nearly 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women would need treatment for acute malnutrition.
In the wake of Israel’s Hamas-led attack on Israel, for 19 months since Israel launched its attack on Gaza, people relied on cleaning for food, eating grass and animal feed, and drinking contaminated water. The hungry mother was unable to produce enough milk to feed the baby, and parents scrambled to keep their children alive, parents and doctors told CNN.
My mother, Imran Rajab, who lives in Gaza city, told CNN earlier this month that she was forced to bake bread using flour from a trash can and would feed her six children.
“My kids are vomiting after eating it. It smells horrible,” Rajab said. “But what else can you do? Without this, what would you feed your children?”
Dr Amjad al-Muzaini, a gynecologist working in Gaza city, said Gaza women are forced to choose between providing for their children or taking care of their health. In most cases, he said they sacrifice their happiness to ensure survival.
During the Caesarean section surgery, the women were found to have significantly deteriorated in their intestines and uterine tissue, Al Muzaini said that eating low-quality canned foods is likely to be effective.
WFP has recently said it is ready to surge in enough aid in Gaza. Unrwa, the main UN agency supporting Palestinians, said there are nearly 3,000 trucks filled with aid waiting to cross Gaza, which is currently blocked by Israel.
“Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border,” WFP executive director Cindy McCain said in X.
“If you wait for hunger to be officially confirmed, it’s too late,” she said.
Israel launched a war in Gaza after the October 2023 attack in which extremists killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed almost 53,000 Palestinians. More than 2,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to figures provided by Gaza’s Health Ministry since Israel resumed artillery fires in March.
