The UN warns that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are dying of hunger due to a “globally unprecedented” situation in the Gaza Strip. A new study carried out by several UN agencies and other institutions today concluded that 577,000 people in the coastal strip fall into the most serious category of hunger.
“I've never seen anything like this before. The scale of acute food insecurity is unprecedented in terms of severity, speed of deterioration and complexity,” said Shaza Moghraby, spokesperson for the World Food Program (WFP) in New York.
People threatened by “catastrophic” famine in the face of Israeli attacks represent more than a quarter of the more than two million people in the area. Almost all residents are affected by hunger or displacement.
“We cannot wait for famine to be declared before we act,” Moghraby said. In contrast, there are currently 129,000 people in the rest of the world combined who, according to the analysis, are at a similar risk.