Gaza "Hanging by a Thread": WFP Halts Food Aid Amidst Famine Fears
Every person in Gaza is food insecure and 1 in 4 people are facing famine-like conditions as Israel continues its assault while not allowing enough aid in.
On Tuesday, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it is pausing its deliveries of food to northern Gaza, the region worst affected by Israel’s siege and assault that began after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7.
WFP had only resumed deliveries on Sunday following a three-week suspension after Israeli forces fired on a convoy carrying food aid in early February.
But the resumption was met with “complete chaos” and “unprecedented levels of desperation”, the WFP said. Their convoys were surrounded by crowds of hungry people who climbed onto the trucks even as they faced gunfire in Gaza City.
“Imagine being so hungry you are willing to run into gunfire to collect food. That’s a reflection of the level of desperation people of Gaza are facing today,” said Matthew Hollingworth, World Food Programme Country Director for Palestine.
The WFP said that Gaza is “hanging by a thread” as its people face famine but it had no choice but to pause its assistance because of the safety and security situation.
Gaza’s government media office said that WFP’s decision “would mean a death sentence for three-quarters of a million people that will exponentially worsen the humanitarian situation”
Almost no one in Gaza is getting enough food to eat. The numbers are staggering.
They come from the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), which is the go-to resource for food security situation analysis. The consensus-based analysis is conducted by 23 partners including UN agencies and international agencies.
The last IPC report for Gaza was released in late December. It found that 17% of Gazans faced “catastrophic” levels of hunger, or, in other words, famine. It projected that if the prevailing scenario continues —and it has — then by February 26% of Gazans would be facing famine.
80% of the world’s population facing famine is now in Gaza.
But, the report stopped short of calling the situation a full-fledged famine because the declaration of famine depends on other factors as well, including a doubling of the death rate and a thirty percent rate of wasting (too thin for their height) in children. Thousands of famine-related deaths have usually already happened by the time famine is declared.
The entire population of Gaza, according to the IPC report is facing crisis levels of hunger, that is, they are not able to meet their daily food needs. 21% face “crisis” levels of hunger and 53% face “emergency” levels of hunger, in addition to the 26% who face famine.
Strikingly, the report found, that there was not a single person in Gaza who did not face some level of food insecurity.
Prices of food and cooking essentials have skyrocketed — the price of fuel is up 500%, vegetables are up 200% and rice 50% — since the siege and the invasion began. Only 20% of Gazans can access food through markets. Around 40% are relying on friends and family and the rest on aid.
In the north of Gaza, no bakeries were operational, and wheat was completely absent from the market.
Save the Children has warned that deaths due to starvation may soon exceed deaths due to the military assault. Families are often going 3 or 4 days without food. Infectious diseases are spreading even as the health infrastructure has collapsed due to Israel’s assault and siege.
A recent report by UNICEF found that 15% of children under 2 years of age are acutely malnourished. Before October 2023, the figure was less than 1%. This rapid decline in a population’s nutritional status is “unprecedented” globally.
There is also an acute lack of access to safe drinking water or water for cooking and hygiene. Households are getting less than one litre of safe water per person per day.
In December, the UN’s Famine Review Committee said that an immediate ceasefire was essential to ensure that famine is prevented.
The key reason for the dire situation remains Israel’s relentless assault in Gaza which has gone beyond targetting only Hamas. Israeli forces have also been accused of systematically decimating food production systems — by blocking access to farmland and sea, destroying fishing fleets and razing croplands. Israel is also not allowing enough aid to enter even as that remains the only way most Gazans can access basics like food and water.
Further reading
“Starvation as a method of warfare” - by Alex de Waal.
“Biden can end the bombing of Gaza right now. Here’s how” - by Mehdi Hasan