Eurasia Press & News
The UN food insecurity monitor declared, ‘Over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions’
A United Nations body has declared a famine in Gaza as Israel’s genocidal assault intensifies.
Israel has been starving millions of Palestinians for months. On Friday the Integrated Food Phase Classification (IPC), the UN’s food insecurity monitor, said, “Over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions, characterised by starvation, destitution and death.”
Some 514,000 people in Gaza are experiencing a “man-made” famine. It’s just the fifth time in 14 years the IPC has declared a famine.
The IPC identified four overarching causes, with Israel’s escalating conflict, the mass displacement of Palestinians and Israel’s deliberate restriction of access being core drivers. The IPC said there has been a “food system collapse”—over 98 percent of the cropland in the territory damaged or inaccessible.
Israel’s starvation tactics have killed hundreds of Palestinians, while the Israeli military has slaughtered over 2,000 at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “aid” sites.
Despite the atrocities, Israel has repeatedly denied that there is any starvation in Gaza. Israel’s foreign ministry slammed the document, saying it was “based on Hamas lies laundered through organisations with vested interests”.
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat) said it was plagued by “false narratives and propaganda”.
“Instead of providing a professional, neutral, and responsible assessment, the report adopts a biased approach riddled with severe methodological flaws, thereby undermining its credibility.”
Cogat added that since May “over 10,000 trucks of aid have entered the Gaza Strip”. That number is unverified. But even if it is true, it amounts to just 90 trucks of aid a day—less than 20 percent of the 600 trucks a day the UN was providing and says people in Gaza need.
Israel has now launched a full-scale invasion of Gaza City. On Thursday, Israel murdered 48 Palestinians, 16 of whom were seeking aid. Israel followed by massacring 17 more people on Friday.
Defence minister Israel Katz said, ““The gates of hell will soon open over Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza—until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament.”
He threatened that if Hamas does not surrender, Gaza City “will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun”—eviscerated and turned to rubble. Israel has called up 60,000 reservists to assist with the slaughter in Gaza City.
But Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire proposal which has seen it concede on many of its core demands.
Hamas has agreed to larger “buffer zones” for Israeli troops, and dropped its demand for Israel to fully withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor. It has also dropped its explicit demand that the GHF must not be involved in future aid operations.
The resistance group has also reduced the number of Palestinian hostages it wants in return for Israeli hostages.
In an interview with Drop Site, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said, “We are awaiting the Zionist enemy’s response to the new proposal from the mediators.”
Naim said the group was “taking into account the grave humanitarian conditions facing our people”.
Despite this, Israel is determined to plough ahead with its barbaric invasion of Gaza. Israeli occupation chief of staff Eyal Zamir said on Friday, “As in all sectors, we do not wait—we thwart threats before they grow.
“The campaign is ongoing—we are expanding activity in Gaza.”
As has always been the case, Israel is blocking yet another ceasefire proposal. It is determined to use the excuse of Hamas to justify its violent regime of starvation, slaughter and bombs.
All the while, we have a Labour government relentlessly supporting Israel’s genocide. Join the next national Palestine demonstration, Saturday 6 September, 12 noon, central London
