ROME, November 09, 2024 – Famine is on the rise in the northern Gaza Strip amid escalating hostilities and a near freeze on food aid, a UN-backed assessment said on Saturday.
The Famine Review Committee warned of an “imminent and substantial possibility of starvation due to rapidly deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip”.
“The threshold of famine may have already been crossed or will occur in the near future,” the warning said.
On October 17, the agency estimated the number of people in Gaza facing “catastrophic” food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report classifies it as IPC Phase 5 – a situation when “starvation, death, destitution and extremely severe acute malnutrition levels are evident.”
Following the report, the committee noted that food systems in northern Gaza have collapsed, humanitarian aid is lacking, and the water, sanitation and hygiene situation is dire.
“It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease are increasing rapidly in these areas.”
After the attack by Hamas on October 7 last year, a large area of the Gaza Strip was destroyed by Israel’s retaliatory attack.
The Israeli army has intensified its operations since early October in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where evacuation orders are in place.
Aid shipments allowed to enter the Gaza Strip were the lowest since October 2023, the report said.
As the price of essential goods increases in the black market, access to food is decreasing. Cooking gas has increased by 2,612 percent, diesel by 1,315 percent and wood prices by 250 percent.
“Extremely high and rising prices of essential commodities have led to a complete collapse of livelihoods to be able to buy or barter for food and other basic needs,” the warning said.
The body last month expressed concern over Israel’s severing of ties with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinians (UNRWA), warning of “extremely serious consequences for humanitarian action” in Gaza.
ams/ach