Famine ‘imminent’ in northern Gaza: UN food agency

The United Nations’s food agency warned famine is “imminent” in part of Gaza as Israel continues to target the region.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said a new report found famine “is imminent in the northern part of the Gaza Strip” with the entire population facing crisis levels of food insecurity. In Gaza’s two northern governorates, which include about 300,000 people, famine is expected to arrive between now and May.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report found about half the population in Gaza, about 1.1 million people, have exhausted all of their food supplies and are facing “catastrophic hunger” and starvation.

“People in Gaza are starving to death right now. The speed at which this man-made hunger and malnutrition crisis has ripped through Gaza is terrifying,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain.

“There is a very small window left to prevent an outright famine and to do that we need immediate and full access to the north. If we wait until famine has been declared, it’s too late. Thousands more will be dead,” she said.

President Biden announced earlier this month that the U.S. would build a temporary port along the coast of Gaza to help bring in humanitarian aid, but the construction could still take about two months. The agency called on Israel to allow more access points for humanitarian aid to be provided to Gaza, noting that airdrops “cannot deliver the volume of aid urgently needed to avert imminent famine.”

The report said famine could be stopped if aid organizations were granted full access to provide food, water and other necessary supplies to the civilian population in Gaza. The report also found that southern Gaza, including Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, are also at risk of famine conditions by July.

The agency estimated about 300 aid trucks are needed to pass into Gaza every day to address the growing needs, but it added only nine convoys have been allowed to enter the region since the start of the year.