Back-to-back UN reports have found famine is looming in the northern Gaza Strip as Israel continues an offensive which has killed mostly women and children in the locality.
The UN’s Famine Review Committee warned on Saturday of “an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip”.
“Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future,” it said.
Over 300,000 facing ‘catastrophic’ food insecurity as aid trickles and prices soar
There have been pauses in fighting to allow aid workers to administer polio vaccinations to children. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas)
The body’s last projection, made last month, estimated that 16 per cent of Gaza’s population — 345,000 people — would face “catastrophic” food insecurity between November this year and April 2025.
Since then, the committee said conditions have worsened in the north of Gaza — with a collapse of food systems, a drop in humanitarian aid and critical water, sanitation and hygiene conditions.
“It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas,” it said.
Israeli forces have intensified their assault on the northern Gaza Strip since early October, with aid shipments more restricted now than at any time since October 2023.
The committee said essentials were being sold at soaring prices on the black market.
Cooking gas rose by 2,612 per cent, diesel by 1,315 per cent and wood by 250 per cent, it said.
“Concurrent with the extremely high and increasing prices of essential items has been the total collapse of livelihoods to be able to purchase or barter for food and other basic needs,” it said.
The body also expressed concern over Israel having cut ties with the UN aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) last month, warning of “extremely serious consequences for humanitarian operations” in Gaza.
The committee called earlier for “all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have an influence on its conduct” to take “immediate action, within days not weeks” to prevent catastrophe.
“If no effective action is taken by stakeholders with influence, the scale of this looming catastrophe is likely to dwarf anything we have seen so far in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023,” it said.
The Israeli military later rejected the warning, saying it had increased aid efforts including opening an additional crossing on Friday.
“Unfortunately, the researchers continue to rely on partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests,” it said in a statement.
The warning came just days ahead of a US deadline for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on US military aid.
The US has said it is watching to ensure that its ally’s actions on the ground show it does not have a “policy of starvation” in the north.
The IPC defines famine as when at least 20 per cent of people in an area are suffering extreme food shortages, with at least 30 per cent of children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.
Nearly 70 per cent of those killed in Gaza war are women and children
The Famine Review Committee’s statement came a day after the UN’s Human Rights Office reported nearly 70 per cent of the casualties it had verified in the Gaza war were women and children.
In its Friday statement, the office condemned what it called “a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law”.
“It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said after the body released its 32-page report.
The UN tally since the start of the war includes only fatalities it has managed to verify with three sources such as neighbours, family members, local NGOs, hospital records or UN staff on the ground. Counting continues.
Israeli air strikes hit the north Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. (Reuters: Abdul Karim Farid )
The 8,119 UN-verified casualties comprise a much lower death toll than the 43,000 numbered by Palestinian health authorities during the 13-month-old war.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters at a briefing in Geneva that the final UN tally was likely to be similar to the Palestinian-reported toll.
“The numbers are, of course, massive compared to previous years, so we do need time to catch up and verify”, he said.
The UN breakdown of the their’ age and gender backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.
The youngest victim whose death was verified by UN monitors was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman, the report said.
Overall, those aged 18 or under represented 44 per cent of the victims. Children aged 5 to 9 represented the single biggest age category, followed by those aged 10 to 14, and then those aged up to and including 4.
This broadly reflects the enclave’s demographics, which the report said was evidence of an apparent failure to take precautions to avoid civilian losses.
The report found that in 88 per cent of cases, five or more people were killed in the same attack — pointing to the Israeli military’s use of weapons with an effect across a wide area.
It said some fatalities may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.
Israel says report fails to ‘reflect realities on the ground’
Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva said it categorically rejected the report.
“Once again, OHCHR fails to accurately reflect the realities on the ground,” it said.
Israel says approximately one civilian has been killed per Hamas fighter during the war.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that there are between 75,000 and 95,000 people still in northern Gaza.
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