A woman in Gaza bakes bread. Gaza residents go hungry for days due to food shortages Peace and Security
The Gaza Strip remains on the brink of mass famine. Food security experts warned Tuesday that more than 20 percent of households are “going hungry for days.”
According to the latest UN-sponsored Integrated Famine Classification (IPF) report, 96 percent of the enclave’s population—about 2.15 million people—face severe food insecurity at or above “crisis” levels. This is the third phase of classification.
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Including half a million people in “catastrophic” conditions (Phase 5), the report notes, highlighting the “high risk ” mass starvation throughout the sector ” as long as the conflict continues and access to humanitarian assistance is limited.
Humanitarian access
At the same time, according to updated information, in the northern provinces of Gaza there is a “slight improvement” in the food security situation. Previously, mass famine was expected there by the end of May.
This indicates that increased access could have an impact on people’s lives, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said. Increased food supplies to the north and nutrition services have helped reduce the highest levels of hunger, but the situation remains desperate, the WFP added.
Not a single centimeter safe
There is “not a single centimeter of safety left” in Gaza, and the laws and customs of war continue to be ignored to the detriment of the population and humanitarian organizations, Yasmina Gerda of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday
Speaking to reporters in Geneva after a three-month mission in Gaza, Gerda said getting aid there had become a “daily puzzle” that left malnourished children without food. support.
She recalled the Israeli military operation in Nuseirat in central Gaza to free four hostages two weeks ago, which, according to local health authorities, killed and injured hundreds of people, stressing that civilians in the area received no warning of the impending attack .
“We were working a couple of kilometers [from the operation site], and the walls, doors, and windows of our building were shaking. We didn’t know what was happening, we found out about it later,” added the OCHA employee.
Gerda also described visiting a field hospital after a military operation, where she found children who had lost limbs “staring into space, stunned and unable to make a sound or cry.”
Delivery of humanitarian aid remains extremely difficult, she said, especially after the Israeli military closed key border crossing in early May.
10 amputees per day
Meanwhile, the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said on Tuesday that every day 10 children in Gaza lose one or both legs.
UNRWA Commissioner General also condemned the overnight attack on one of the agency’s schools in Gaza City, which reportedly killed about 12 people and injured 22 others.
He said the total UN facilities damaged and targeted since the start of the war have reached 190, representing more than half of UNRWA premises in the Gaza Strip.
Suppression of anti-war demonstrations
The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education expressed concern about the recent “harsh crackdown” on anti-war protests at universities in the United States, where demonstrators called for a ceasefire and a review of their educational institutions’ ties to Israel.
“Pro-Palestinian protesters, including Jewish students, face disproportionately harsh responses for alleged anti-Semitic views when criticism of the State of Israel is linked to anti-Semitism,” Farida Shahid told the UN Council on Human Rights in Geneva on Monday.
The independent expert noted that governments “must prohibit incitement to violence, hostility or discrimination,” while insisting that the expression of political views is not is the basis for restricting freedoms.