The entire population in the Gaza Strip faces an imminent risk of famine, with more than half a million people already in catastrophic conditions, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warns. Meanwhile, after days of intense negotiations on a humanitarian pause and the delivery of aid to the war-torn Gaza Strip, the United States abstained Friday on a United Nations Security Council (SC) resolution, allowing its adoption by the 15-member body.
A UN-backed body, that issues famine warnings, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), warned Thursday in an analysis that the entire population of Gaza - more than 2 million people - is at crisis levels or worse of hunger. The analysis further highlights that 26 per cent of Gazans - more than half a million people - have exhausted their food supplies and coping capacities and face catastrophic hunger and starvation.
Bombardment, ground operations and the besiegement of the entire population, coupled with restricted humanitarian access, have resulted in catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, intensifying the risk of famine each day, according to the IPC.
“Four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza. And clean water is at a trickle,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Friday.
The IPC analysis includes data from the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and many other UN agencies, as well as international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
"WFP has warned of this coming catastrophe for weeks," WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said of the IPC’s findings. "Tragically, without the safe, consistent access we have been calling for, the situation is desperate, and no one in Gaza is safe from starvation."
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that in the coming weeks, at least 10,000 children under 5 years old will suffer the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, known as severe wasting, and will need therapeutic foods.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, said Thursday in a social media post that the announcement about the risk of famine in Gaza by IPC is sobering but not surprising. “We have been warning for weeks that, with such deprivation and destruction, each day that goes by will only bring more hunger, disease and despair to the people of Gaza,” Griffiths said.
On Friday, the UN Security Council passed a weak resolution on Gaza, averting a US veto. Diplomatic sources say thar US moves to soften the language of the resolution, particularly on cease-fire calls, angered many UN member states.
Rather than demanding a cease-fire, the final text calls for the warring parties to create "the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities." The United States as well as Israel currently oppose a cease-fire. The Council only called for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for sustainable cessation of hostilities.
Adopting resolution 2720 (2023) by a recorded vote of 13 in favor to none against, with 2 abstentions (United States, Russia), the Council also requested the Secretary-General to appoint a Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for the Gaza Strip. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will now name a senior coordinator to establish a UN mechanism for accelerating the provision of humanitarian relief.
But the Council did not condemn Israel’s indiscriminate attacks against civilians, other war crimes committed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Neither did the Security Council call for an urgent suspension of hostilities nor the cessation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory.
In a signal of increasing US and Israeli isolation on the world stage, earlier this month the UN General Assembly (GA) voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution demanding an "immediate humanitarian cease-fire," with 153 member states in favor, 10 against, and 23 abstentions. Unlike SC resolutions, the GA's are non-binding.
Russia called the final draft that contained amendments pushed by Washington "extremely neutered" and "toothless." Prior to adoption, the Council failed to adopt an amendment put forth by Russia owing to the United States casting a veto. The amendment would have had the Council call for an urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.
Diplomats had been working since Monday on the resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), seeking to avoid language that had brought repeated US vetoes of UN Security Council votes since Israel launched its war in Gaza.
Following the large-scale attack by Palestinian armed groups on October 7, the Israeli cabinet declared war and the military begun launching indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in the Gaza Strip. The more than 10-week-old military campaign has killed more than 20,000 people and wounded more than 52,000. While 70 percent of the fatalities are reportedly children and women, the dead include more than 8,000 children and at least 6,200 women.
Among those killed are at least 136 UN staff, 310 health workers and 97 journalists. Thousands of people - including thousands of children - have been reported missing and may be still trapped dead or alive under the rubble.
More than 60 percent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip, a densely populated area, have been either destroyed or damaged since the start of the hostilities. This includes more than 52.000 housing units destroyed and more than 254,000 damaged. Entire residential neighborhoods have been razed to the ground.
Some 1.9 million people – more than 85 percent of the total population of Gaza - have been displaced due to the attacks by the Israeli military or Israeli evacuation orders. Nearly 1.4 million civilians are sheltering in 155 UN installations in increasingly dire conditions.
Since the start of hostilities, 75 percent of hospitals in the Gaza Strip were forced to shut down due to the damage they sustained, lack of power and supplies or evacuation orders, increasing the pressure on the remaining health facilities that are still operational. Currently, only 8 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are functional and able to admit new patients, although services are limited. None of these hospitals is in the north.
During a press conference after the Security Council vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres repeated calls for a cease-fire as the only means to meet the "desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare."
The UN chief had harsh words for Israel, underscoring that its military campaign is "creating massive obstacles" to Gazans getting much-needed help. "An effective aid operation in Gaza requires security; staff who can work in safety; logistical capacity; and the resumption of commercial activity," he said. "These four elements do not exist."
When asked if the Palestinian armed group Hamas had a role in blocking aid, Guterres said it’s "obviously not the major factor." Guterres added that Hamas' use of civilians as human shields and its continued firing of rockets at civilian targets "can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people," and "do not free Israel from its own legal obligations."
The United Nations says it is working with all involved to ensure that the flow of goods into Gaza is sufficient, predictable, swiftly delivered and based on what people need most. While the current scale of supplies entering Gaza falls short of what is required, the UN says it is equally crucial to reestablish conditions within Gaza that allow for meaningful, efficient and large-scale humanitarian operations.
Currently, intense fighting, the lack of electricity, limited fuel and disrupted telecommunications severely restrict access to loading points and trucks, as well as the ability to deliver, prioritize, plan and coordinate critical operations – with civilians bearing the brunt.
Following heavy bombardments by Israeli Forces, from the air, sea and land, the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip drastically deteriorated. The merciless attacks by the IDF and the blockade imposed on Gaza by the Israeli government has led to a humanitarian catastrophe for the people of the tiny enclave.
The United Nations, humanitarian organizations, human rights organizations, and independent UN human rights experts have again and again called for the protection of civilians, an immediate ceasefire and the allowance of urgently needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, while a few influential governments – particularly the United States - continue to fuel the conflict and take no action to stop the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.
Humanitarian organizations, human rights organizations, and legal experts have repeatedly said that the killing of thousands of innocent children and women, the siege on an entire civilian population, and the trapping of bombarded civilians behind closed borders in Gaza are crimes under international law. They demand accountability for the crimes committed against civilians in Gaza, from political and military leaders as well as those who provided arms and political or other support.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Gaza Strip: IPC Acute Food Insecurity November 2023 - February 2024, IPC report, released December 21, 2023
https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Gaza_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Nov2023_Feb2024.pdf
Full text: UN Security Council Resolution 2720 (2023), adopted December 22, 2023
http://undocs.org/en/S/RES/2720(2023)
Full text: Press Conference by Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres at United Nations Headquarters, UN Secretary-General, transcript, published December 22, 2023
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm22095.doc.htm