Gaza Strip
UN: Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are at acute risk of starvation
Donation point of a charity that distributes food to Palestinians in Rafah. photo
© Mohammed Talatene/dpa
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” says a spokeswoman for the World Food Program, reflecting on the frightening levels of hunger in the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations warns of a “globally unprecedented” situation Gaza Strip facing starvation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. A new study by several U.N. agencies and other institutions on Thursday concluded that 577,000 people in the sealed-off coastal strip fall into the most severe category of hunger. In contrast, there are currently 129,000 people in the rest of the world combined who, according to the analysis, are at similar risk.
“I have never seen anything like this. The scale of acute food insecurity is unprecedented in terms of severity, speed of deterioration and complexity,” said World Food Program (WFP) New York spokeswoman Shaza Moghraby. The people threatened by “catastrophic” hunger in the face of Israeli attacks are more than a quarter of the more than two million people in the area. Almost all residents are affected by hunger or displacement.
As a result of Israel’s warfare, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is dramatic. According to the UN, more aid deliveries are urgently needed so that the high number of thousands of civilian victims does not continue to rise. “We cannot wait for a famine to be declared before we act,” Moghraby said. Israel sealed off and attacked the Gaza Strip after the horrific terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on October 7th.