RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – Everyone in Gaza is going hungry and about 2.2 million people are surviving day by day on almost nothing, routinely going without meals, said a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization B’Tselem.
The desperate search for food is relentless, and usually unsuccessful, leaving the entire population – including babies, children, pregnant or nursing women and the elderly – hungry, said B’Tselem.
The organization said in a statement that the Gaza Strip was already in the throes of a humanitarian crisis before the war, mainly due to Israel’s 17-year blockade, WAFA reported.
About 80 percent of the population relied on humanitarian aid. Some 44 percent of households were food insecure and another 16 percent were at risk of food insecurity.
Given this starting point, it is clear why Gaza plummeted into a full-blown catastrophe so quickly.
“On 21 December 2023, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (FRC) published a report on the situation in Gaza,” B’Tselem said.
“The FRC, which consists of independent experts, uses the internationally accepted classification of food insecurity levels, the most severe being Phase 5 – Catastrophe/Famine,” it said.
“According to this method, urgent intervention is needed as of Phase 3 (Crisis or worse) in order to protect the population,” it added.
“The FRC report is based on information collected in the Gaza Strip from November 24 2023 to December 7 2023,” B’Tselem said.
“The committee found that during this time, in four of five households in northern Gaza and in half of IDP households in the south, residents went days without any food and many skipped meals to feed their children,” it said.
“About 93 percent of the population in Gaza – some 2.08 million people – were suffering from acute food insecurity at Phase 3 or higher, with over 15 percent – 378,000 people – already at Phase 5,” it added.
“The report also forecasts that by February 7 2024, the entire population of the Gaza Strip will reach Phase 3 or worse. At least one in four residents – more than 500,000 people – is expected to be at Phase 5, facing extreme food shortages, hunger and exhaustion,” B’Tselem said.
“According to the report, if current conditions persist, there is a significant risk that famine will be declared throughout the entire Gaza Strip within six months,” it said.
“Similarly, a UNICEF survey from December 26 2023 found that an increasing number of children are not receiving their basic nutritional needs. About 90 percent of children under age two in Gaza consume food from two or fewer food groups,” B’Tselem said.
“In a survey conducted two weeks earlier the figure was 80 percent. The nutrition of pregnant and nursing women has also been severely compromised, with 25 percent consuming only one type of food, and almost 65 percent only two types,” it said.
“Yet Israel is deliberately denying the entry of enough food into Gaza to meet the population’s needs. Only a fraction of the amount of food entering before the war is allowed in, with limitations on the types of goods, how they are brought in and how they are distributed within Gaza,” B’Tselem said.
“For example, almost all goods enter through Rafah Crossing, a passenger crossing that is not equipped for massive commercial transports, limiting the number of truckloads getting through and creating a bottleneck,” it said.
“Although Israel recently allowed trucks in through Kerem Shalom Crossing, too, which is designed for commercial transports, this was merely a token addition that has failed to alleviate the hardship,” it added.
“Israel forces aid organizations to purchase food from Egypt and prevents them from buying it in Israel, which would allow for a more efficient and rapid transfer of goods. Israel also prohibits the private sector in Gaza from purchasing food, which could significantly increase supply,” B’Tselem said.
“Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, listed several reasons why aid cannot be efficiently distributed. Among other things, he noted that trucks are inspected several times before Israel allows them into Gaza, and even then, long lines form due to the conditions at Rafah Crossing,” it said.
“Israel can, if it so chooses, change this reality,” it added. .
“Starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited and when a civilian population lacks what it needs to survive, parties to the conflict have a positive obligation to allow passage of humanitarian aid – including food,” B’Tselem said.
“These two rules are considered customary law and violating them constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” it said.