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integrated food security phase classification
UN to Warn Half a Million Gazans Facing 'Catastrophic' Food Insecurity
"The international community must apply relentless pressure to achieve a cease-fire and ensure sustained humanitarian access now," said one advocate.
Jun 24, 2024
More than 1 in 5 people in the Gaza Strip are "facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity" amid Israel's relentless assault and siege against the Palestinian territory, according to a draft report set to be published Tuesday by the United Nations' hunger monitoring system.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Food Insecurity Special Snapshot—which was previewed by various news agencies—says that more than 495,000 Gazans—who already face "an extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion"—are expected to suffer the highest level of starvation over the coming months.
The draft report states that while a sharp increase in food aid in northern Gaza in March and April can be credited with "likely averting a famine," the situation is "deteriorating again following renewed hostilities."
"A high risk of famine persists across the whole of the Gaza Strip as long as conflict continues and humanitarian access is restricted," IPC noted.
The IPC draft report also says more than half of all Gaza households had to sell or swap clothing in order to obtain food, and that the majority of Gazan families often "do not have any food to eat in the house, and over 20% go entire days and nights without eating."
"The population cannot endure these hardships any longer."
Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president of global policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps, an Oregon-based humanitarian NGO, toldThe Guardian that "people are enduring subhuman conditions resorting to desperate measures like boiling weeds, eating animal feed, and exchanging clothes for money to stave off hunger and keep their children alive."
"The humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly, and the specter of famine continues to hang over Gaza," she added. "The international community must apply relentless pressure to achieve a cease-fire and ensure sustained humanitarian access now. The population cannot endure these hardships any longer."
Although the IPC stopped short of the rare step of declaring a famine in Gaza, it warned that "the recent trajectory is negative and highly unstable."
"Should this continue, the improvements seen in April could be rapidly reversed," the agency added.
The IPC's famine review panel previously said there is not enough data to make a determination on whether there is a famine in Gaza since research was being blocked by "conflict and humanitarian access constraints."
The Geneva-based group Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said Monday that "the Famine Review Committee's inability to declare the current food situation in the Gaza Strip to be a famine does not negate the existence of famine in the strip, as pockets of famine are forming and spreading among different age groups, particularly children, and there is a noticeable increase in deaths from hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases."
"The committee's failure to declare the existence of a famine is solely related to its inability to provide certain technical information because of illegal Israeli restrictions and policies that aim to conceal evidence related to the crimes it commits and prevent criminal investigations into them by independent U.N. and international committees, particularly by preventing these committees from entering the strip," the group added.
U.N. World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said last month that "full-blown famine" had taken hold in Gaza and was spreading south. According to Gaza officials, at least 40 people—mostly children—have died from malnutrition and dehydration during the 262-day Israeli onslaught. Almost all of the victims are from northern Gaza.
Israel began bombing, and later invaded, Gaza after Hamas-led attacks left more than 1,100 Israelis and others dead and over 240 others kidnapped on October 7. At least some of the victims were killed by Israeli forces in so-called "friendly fire" incidents, according to Israeli and international media reports.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 37,626 Palestinians—most of them women and children—in Gaza, while wounding over 86,000 others, according to Palestinian and international agencies. At least 11,000 people, including over 4,000 children, are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out homes and other buildings.
Michael Fakhri, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food and a law professor at the University of Oregon, said in late February that Israel is committing genocide by intentionally starving Gazans. Israel's siege—and Israeli attacks on humanitarian aid shipments, workers, and recipients—are being reviewed by the International Court of Justice as part of a South Africa-led genocide case backed by over 30 countries and regional blocs.
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'No More Money' for Israel, Says Sanders as Biden Official Privately Warns of Imminent Famine Declaration
"The U.S. cannot partner with a country that is starving children," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Apr 04, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders responded to the news Wednesday that a top Biden administration official warned Israel of an imminent famine declaration in Gaza with one demand.
"No more money for Netanyahu," said the Vermont Independent senator, referring to right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As Axiosreported Wednesday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned Israeli officials in a virtual meeting earlier this week that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) could in the coming weeks declare a famine in Gaza, which would be only the third such declaration worldwide in the 21st century.
Famines were declared in South Sudan in 2017 and in Somalia in 2011—starvation crises that killed tens of thousands of people.
The IPC identified two of Gaza's five governorates as experiencing famine "with reasonable evidence" last month, but an official declaration for the enclave would represent a significant turning point in Israel's bombardment and blocking of aid in Gaza, Sullivan told the Israeli officials.
"Sullivan said it would be bad for Israel and for the U.S.," a source with direct knowledge of the meeting told Axios.
The national security adviser reportedly warned Israel that it would bear responsibility if a famine is declared—but Sanders noted that as the top international funder of Israel's military, the Biden administration would also be to blame.
"The U.S. cannot partner with a country that is starving children," said the senator.
As Oxfam reported Wednesday, people in northern Gaza, where about 300,000 Palestinians are believed to be trapped, are now subsisting on 245 calories per day—less than a can of beans and about 12% of the recommended daily intake to prevent malnutrition.
For Gaza's population of 2.2 million people, Oxfam found that the food deliveries allowed into Gaza since October have allowed Palestinians there to consume an average of just 41% of the daily calories needed per person.
"Israel is making deliberate choices to starve civilians. Imagine what it is like, not only to be trying to survive on 245 calories day in, day out, but also having to watch your children or elderly relatives do the same. All whilst displaced, with little to no access to clean water or a toilet, knowing most medical support has gone and under the constant threat of drones and bomb," said Amitabh Behar, international executive director of Oxfam. "All countries need to immediately stop supplying arms to Israel and do all they can to secure an immediate and permanent cease-fire; only then can we stop this horrifying carnage for the 2.2 million people who have endured six months of suffering."
Israel has denied Gaza is facing starvation and an imminent famine, even as it has blocked food aid and fired on crowds of Palestinians waiting to receive relief deliveries.
On Wednesday, as international outrage grew over Israel's killing of seven aid workers with U.S.-based nonprofit World Central Kitchen as they were delivering food in Gaza, the New York Times reported that the U.S. State Department is currently pushing Congress to approve the sale of as many as 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel, among other military support. The Biden administration has approved weapons transfers without congressional approval since October, directly aiding Israel in attacks that have killed at least 33,037 people.
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'No Longer on the Brink': Top EU Official Blames Israel for Famine in Gaza
"This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely man-made," said Josep Borrell, the E.U.'s foreign affairs chief.
Mar 18, 2024
The European Union's top foreign affairs official on Monday said that after more than five months of Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid and bombardment of Gaza, the U.S.-backed government has pushed the enclave into famine.
Josep Borrell, the E.U.'s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, demanded that Western governments clearly state the reason that at least two of Gaza's five governorates have now been identified by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global initiative (IPC) as experiencing famine "with reasonable evidence."
"In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine; we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people," Borrell said in Brussels at a meeting on humanitarian aid for the besieged enclave. "This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war."
"By whom? Let's dare to say by whom. By the one that prevents humanitarian support entering into Gaza," he said, adding that "Israel is provoking famine."
Borrell's remarks signify that the E.U. has now accepted that "that Israel is starving Gaza," said journalist Owen Jones, with "straightforward genocidal intent."
The IPC, which was established in 2004 by the United Nations and international humanitarian groups, said Monday that since the analysis it conducted in December—in which it warned of famine by May if a cessation of hostilities did not take place—the conditions needed to prevent such a catastrophe have not been met.
Famine in Gaza's northern governorates is now projected to take hold between mid-March and May, the IPC said.
"According to the most likely scenario, both North Gaza and Gaza Governorates are classified in IPC Phase 5 (famine) with reasonable evidence, with 70% (around 210,000 people) of the population in IPC Phase 5 (catastrophe)," said the initiative.
The group uses the famine classification when at least one of three conditions has been observed:
- At least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food;
- At least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition; and
- At least two adults or four children for every 10,000 people die daily from starvation or from disease linked to malnutrition.
At least 27 children in Gaza have now died of malnutrition in recent weeks, according to local authorities, as Israel has attacked civilians seeking humanitarian aid numerous times and has blocked deliveries.
The E.U. said Monday that just 100 tonnes of aid per day are reaching Gaza, compared with 500 tonnes that entered the enclave daily before Israel's current bombardment.
The entire population of 2.2 million people is now facing high levels of "acute food insecurity," according to the IPC.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, head of the pediatric department at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, told Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) that the facility is seeing the daily effects of Israel's blocking of aid.
“Amid the famine in the north, there are many cases of elderly people and especially children showing symptoms of dehydration and malnutrition," said the doctor. "Twenty-five to 30 children are admitted to the hospital on a daily basis, with half of them suffering from dehydration and malnutrition. One child, two months old, died today because of dehydration and malnutrition. Other children are on the same trajectory unless the situation is addressed soon."
Meanwhile, he said, medical workers themselves are "suffering from physical weakness and extreme exhaustion" as they try to treat people injured in relentless bombings and gunfire.
“As a medical team managing the hospital, we have not been able to secure even one meal," said Abu Safiya. "Our staff are worn out working 24/7 without food."
Borrell pointed to recent comments by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Scholz warned: "We cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve."
"This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely man-made," said Borrell. "Chancellor Scholz is saying Europeans cannot sit and watch Palestinian starving, when on the other side of the border there is food for months accumulated in stocks, while on the other side of the road there are people dying of hunger."
Rose Caldwell, CEO of children's rights group Plan International, added that the "entirely man-made catastrophe should be a source of shame for the international community."
"After months of unimaginable trauma and indiscriminate bombing, the children of Gaza are now facing the horror of starvation and the threat of imminent famine," said Caldwell. "There can be no excuses: preventing access for humanitarian aid is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is illegal and immoral."
The IPC has classified only two other humanitarian crises as famines: one in Somalia, which killed 490,000 people in 2011, and one in South Sudan, which killed 80,000 people in 2017.
At least 31,726 Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces since it began its bombardment.
"Before the war, Gaza was the greatest open air prison," said Borrell. "Today it is the greatest open air graveyard."
Melanie Ward, CEO of MAP, noted that the organization warned in January that its physicians were seeing evidence of severe malnutrition in children.
"World leaders have fiddled at the edges rather than take decisive action which addresses the cause of this starvation," said Ward. "Now world leaders must insist that Israel immediately opens all land crossings into Gaza, particularly the Karni and Erez crossings, and allows safe and unfettered access for aid and aid workers."
"Children in Gaza are being starved at the fastest rate the world has ever known," she added, "and their survival depends on more food, fuel, and water entering Gaza immediately, as well as a lasting cease-fire."
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