GENEVA: WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned that northern Gaza is on the brink of imminent famine if humanitarian aid interventions in the area are not carried out within days.
Expressing grief at X, he wrote, “Deeply alarming- @theIPCinfo strong possibility of starvation in northern #Gaza”
He called for immediate scaling up and secure access to humanitarian aid, mainly food and medicine to combat severe malnutrition.
Sharing the IPC report by the Hunger Review Committee (FRC), the WHO Director-General called for collective global action.
The report, published on November 8, expressed concern about the imminent and substantial possibility of starvation due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip.
Various views have been held in the report. It noted that according to OCHA data, the number of aid shipments to the Gaza Strip is lower than at any time since October 2023.
A WFP market monitoring report for the second half of October indicates that the average number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip dropped to just 58 per day, the lowest level since November 2023.
It is mentioned that the price of basic items like cooking fuel has also increased sharply in the black market. With the high and rising prices of essential commodities, the livelihood of people who can buy or barter for food and other basic needs has been completely destroyed.
In an important observation, the report said, “It is already abundantly clear that the worst-case scenario developed by the analysis team is now playing out in areas of the northern Gaza Strip”.
“It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease are increasing rapidly in these areas. The threshold for starvation may already be exceeded, or will be in the near future,” the report noted.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been escalating since the start of the conflict in West Asia.