The Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) is report Friday said residents in northern Gaza were threatened by “an imminent and substantial possibility of extreme starvation.”
The organization defines hunger as a situation in which at least 20 percent of households in a given region are severely food insecure. The IPC predicted that extreme hunger is likely to occur between November 2024 and April 2025, noting that food access is “at critical levels and rapidly deteriorating.”
Gaza has been in conflict since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. Israel's continued response to hostage kidnappings has increased tensions with neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Iran.
“It is already abundantly clear that the worst-case scenario developed by the analysis team is currently unfolding in the northern Gaza Strip,” the IPC said in its report. “Hunger, malnutrition, and excess mortality from malnutrition and disease are therefore likely to be increasing rapidly in these regions. The threshold for famine has either already been exceeded or is likely to occur in the near future. Sho.”
Organizations such as Oxfam, a British non-governmental organization dedicated to alleviating global poverty, echo the IPC's concerns.
“The situation in northern Gaza is now beyond catastrophic, with local families literally having nothing to eat.The situation in southern Gaza is also rapidly deteriorating, with the market in Deir El Bala stocked with food. very little remains,” said Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam's Middle East director. statement.
“Famine has been looming for months, and humanitarian agencies like Oxfam have repeatedly warned of how dire the situation is, yet the supply of sufficient aid to Gaza has repeatedly failed. It is blocked.”
Israel recently passed a law prohibit On October 28, parliament banned the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from operating within its territory. IPC called on the Gaza government to take steps to feed the people of the Gaza Strip in the coming days.
“After more than a year of war, the population's vulnerability is already present and has increased, with the population having been displaced multiple times as a result of conflict, evacuation orders, and extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure.” IPC stated.
“The unprecedented rate of deterioration and deviation from the most likely scenario requires a very urgent response, in days, not weeks.”
