The Gaza Strip was already in a humanitarian crisis before the war, largely due to the 17-year Israeli blockade. Around 80% of the population was already dependent on humanitarian aid. 44% of households experienced food insecurity and another 16% were at risk of suffering from it. Given this starting point, it is clear why Gaza plunged into catastrophe so quickly.
On December 21, 2023, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released a report on the situation in Gaza. The FRC, made up of independent experts, uses the internationally recognized classification of levels of food insecurity, with Phase 5 – Disaster/Famine – being the most severe. According to this method, from phase 3 – crisis or worse – urgent intervention is required to protect the population.
The FRC report is based on information collected in the Gaza Strip between November 24 and December 7, 2023. The committee found that during this period, in four out of five family units in the northern Gaza Strip and in half of the internally displaced families in the south, residents went entire days without food and many skipped meals to feed their sons and daughters. About 93% of Gaza's population – about 2.08 million people – were in Stage 3 or higher of severe food insecurity, and more than 15% – 378,000 people – were already in Phase 5 – Disaster/Famine.
The report also predicts that by February 7, 2024, Gaza's entire population will be in Phase 3 or worse. It is estimated that at least one in four residents – more than 500,000 people – are in Phase 5 and will face extreme food shortages, hunger and exhaustion. According to the report, if conditions persist, there is a high risk of famine being declared across the Gaza Strip within six months. This situation occurs when 20% of family units reach Stage 5, when 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and when two adults or four children per 10,000 die of hunger every day.
Likewise, a UNICEF survey from December 26, 2023 found that more and more boys and girls are not meeting their basic nutritional needs. Around 90% of children under the age of two in Gaza consume foods from two groups or less. In a survey conducted two weeks earlier, the figure was 80%. The diet of pregnant and breastfeeding women is also severely affected: 25% only consume one type of food, and almost 65% only consume two.
This reality is not a consequence of the war, but the direct result of Israel's obvious policies. The residents are now completely dependent on food deliveries from outside the Gaza Strip because they can no longer produce their own food. Most cultivated fields have been destroyed and access to open areas during war is already dangerous. Bakeries, factories and food warehouses were bombed or closed due to a lack of basic supplies, fuel and electricity. The reserves of private houses, shops and warehouses have long been exhausted. Under these conditions, the family and social support networks that had helped residents at the beginning of the war have also collapsed.
However, Israel deliberately refuses to import sufficient food into the Gaza Strip to meet the population's needs. It allows only a fraction of the amount of food imported before the war and imposes restrictions on the type of products, their importation and their distribution within the Gaza Strip.
For example, almost all goods enter the country through the Rafah border crossing, a passenger crossing not designed for large commercial shipments, limiting the number of trucks that can reach it and creating a bottleneck. Although Israel also recently allowed entry of trucks through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, which is intended for commercial transport, it is a symbolic measure that has not alleviated the difficulties. In addition, Israel forces aid organizations to purchase food in Egypt and prevents them from purchasing it in Israel, which would allow for more efficient and faster transfer of goods. Israel is also banning the private sector in Gaza from buying food, which could significantly increase supplies.
Under current conditions, aid agencies are having serious difficulties operating, and most of the limited aid allowed remains in Rafah rather than reaching residents across the Gaza Strip. Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, has listed
the reasons why aid cannot be distributed effectively. Among other things, he points out that trucks are checked several times before Israel allows them to enter Gaza, and even then, long queues form due to conditions at the Rafah border crossing. What little food does arrive is difficult to distribute due to constant bombings, destroyed roads, frequent communications blackouts and overcrowded shelters with hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people crammed into ever smaller areas.
Israel can change this reality if it wants. The images of boys and girls begging for food, people standing in long lines to receive meager handouts, and hungry residents attacking aid trucks have become unacceptable. The horror is increasing and the danger of famine is real. Nevertheless, Israel sticks to its policy.
Changing this policy is not just a moral obligation. The entry of food into the Gaza Strip is not an act of benevolence, but a positive obligation under international humanitarian law: starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited, and when a civilian population lacks what it needs to survive, the parties to the conflict have a positive obligation to do so to enable the rapid and unhindered transport of humanitarian aid, including food. These two norms are considered customary law and their violation constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Original article: https://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20240108_israel_is_starving_gaza Translation: Loles Oliván Hijós para wind South
Source: https://vientosur.info/israel-mata-por-hambre-en-gaza/