Famine in Gaza 'imminent', warns UN as Israel continues blockade
The United Nations cautioned on Tuesday that unless Israel allows a substantial rise in humanitarian aid, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza could face death due to an impending famine. The crisis is especially severe in northern Gaza, where families are resorting to feeding their starving children with animal fodder and wild food. Before the war, 500 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip every day from Egypt but the number has now reduced to 100 on days when aid is allowed.
How dire is the situation?
Gaza's 2.2 million residents require 4,000 tonnes of food per week, according to UN World Food Programme. All these individuals have become entirely reliant on aid since the war began. Meanwhile, over 5,76,000 residents are just "one step" away from famine and painful death. The situation is particularly dire in North Gaza which is located on the opposite end of its borders with Egypt. Here, people have been making bread out of animal feed and slaughtering animals to satiate hunger.
Famine in Gaza 'completely preventable'
Georgios Petropoulos, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) office for Gaza, has urged Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the region to prevent this crisis. He emphasized that the mass casualties from malnutrition and dehydration are "completely preventable" if more aid is allowed inside. Notably, the Gazan health ministry reported 25 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration on Saturday.
Things come in drips and trickles: UN
Petropoulos said the main challenge facing humanitarian agencies in Gaza is to obtain a sustainable supply of the relief goods needed to feed, treat, and house suffering civilians. "These things come in drips and trickles when they need to be coming in a roaring river of humanitarian aid so that we can use local distribution networks to assist people," he said. He added that the glaring problem was inability to overcome access issues and deliver food at the required scale.
US plans to build floating pier to facilitate aid delivery
Amid the crisis, the United States (US), last week, announced its plan to build a "temporary floating military pier or causeway" off Gaza's coast to facilitate aid delivery. It has started airdropping aid in coordination with Egypt and three European nations. However, Pentagon officials pointed out that it would take more than 1,000 US soldiers up to 60 days to erect the maritime facility which would be too late to prevent a spike in deaths.
Israel-Gaza war in numbers
31,470 Palestinians have been killed, while over 8,000 have been missing in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7 last year. Separately, 72,654 people have been injured in Israeli strikes, as per Palestinian Health Ministry. 425 Palestinians have lost their lives in clashes across the West Bank. A total of 1,139 people were killed while 253, including foreign nationals, were abducted in the initial attack by Hamas members, as confirmed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
