It is ‘very evident’ there is not enough food in Gaza, WFP director says
We are restarting our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. The director of the UN World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, said it is “very evident” there isn’t enough food in Gaza, adding that starvation was clearly under way in the territory.
Her comments were made to the Associated Press during a visit to Gaza earlier this week and echo the declaration last Friday of widespread famine in Gaza made by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
“I personally met mothers and children who were starving in Gaza,” McCain said. “It is real and it is happening now.”
McCain said she spoke with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and claimed he is “concerned” about the issue. In the past, Netanyahu has denied the existence of famine in Gaza and said the claims about starvation are a propaganda campaign launched by Hamas and spread by the media.
“We agreed that we must immediately redouble our efforts to get more humanitarian aid in. Access and security for our convoys is critical,” McCain said.
Netanyahu has presided over a government that has been starving Gaza by limiting the amount of aid coming into the territory. Charities say there are ongoing obstructions in being able to collect and distribute aid.
In March and April Gaza was under total siege, with no food entering. Israel justified what was widely seen as the collective punishment of the civilian population as a tactic to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages.
In mid-May Netanyahu said shipments would restart because of international pressure over a “starvation crisis”. But the amount of food and basic essentials let into the territory is still woefully inadequate and many Palestinian people have been killed while trying to collect aid.
Stay with us as we give you the latest updates on Gaza throughout the day.
Key events
Israel rejected the findings of the report, saying they were based on “Hamas lies laundered through organisations with vested interests”, and denied the existence of a famine in Gaza.
We mentioned the findings of the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in our opening post.
Here is a bit more detail about the report which said last week that more than half a million people across Gaza are facing “catastrophic” conditions characterised by “starvation, destitution and death”.
The IPC said an “entirely man-made” famine is happening in Gaza City, the territory’s largest, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and could spread south to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of next month.
Only four famines have been declared by the IPC since it was established in 2004, most recently in Sudan last year. The IPC is a globally recognised organisation that classifies the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition.
“This famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,” the report says. It continues:
The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed.
Any further delay – even by days – will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of famine-related mortality.
If a ceasefire is not implemented to allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, and if essential food supplies and basic health, nutrition and (sanitation and water) services are not restored immediately, avoidable deaths will increase exponentially.
It is ‘very evident’ there is not enough food in Gaza, WFP director says
We are restarting our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. The director of the UN World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, said it is “very evident” there isn’t enough food in Gaza, adding that starvation was clearly under way in the territory.
Her comments were made to the Associated Press during a visit to Gaza earlier this week and echo the declaration last Friday of widespread famine in Gaza made by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
“I personally met mothers and children who were starving in Gaza,” McCain said. “It is real and it is happening now.”
McCain said she spoke with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and claimed he is “concerned” about the issue. In the past, Netanyahu has denied the existence of famine in Gaza and said the claims about starvation are a propaganda campaign launched by Hamas and spread by the media.
“We agreed that we must immediately redouble our efforts to get more humanitarian aid in. Access and security for our convoys is critical,” McCain said.
Netanyahu has presided over a government that has been starving Gaza by limiting the amount of aid coming into the territory. Charities say there are ongoing obstructions in being able to collect and distribute aid.
In March and April Gaza was under total siege, with no food entering. Israel justified what was widely seen as the collective punishment of the civilian population as a tactic to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages.
In mid-May Netanyahu said shipments would restart because of international pressure over a “starvation crisis”. But the amount of food and basic essentials let into the territory is still woefully inadequate and many Palestinian people have been killed while trying to collect aid.
Stay with us as we give you the latest updates on Gaza throughout the day.
