First senior Biden official says famine has begun in Gaza 

A senior Biden official said Wednesday that famine is brewing in the Gaza Strip as Israel advances its war with the militant group Hamas.

Humanitarian aid groups have been warning for weeks that starvation is looming in Gaza as food, water and other essential supplies run out. U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power said at a press conference. Congressional testimony Wednesday that the famine has already begun.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) spoke to Power about reports that members of his office sent a cable to the National Security Council warning of continued famine in Gaza. Asked. He asked her if it was “plausible or likely that parts of Gaza, especially northern Gaza, are already suffering from famine.”

Mr. Power pointed to an assessment by the Integrated Food Security Tiering Initiative in his response, noting that the agency believes that assessment to be “credible.”

“So does that mean there’s already starvation there?” Mr. Castro asked.

“That’s–yes,” Power told him.

A report by the Integrated Food Security Staging Initiative last month found famine was “imminent” in parts of northern Gaza.

HuffPost Last week, we reported that U.S. Agency for International Development officials sent a cable to the National Security Council reporting famine in Gaza and warning that hunger-related deaths would “accelerate in the coming weeks.”

Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Gaza is “on the brink” of “going over a cliff of hunger and not being able to recover.”

The Hill has reached out to the U.S. Agency for International Development for additional comment.