The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has officially declared a famine in Gaza Strip.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher called the famine in Gaza a “collective disgrace”, and called on the world to take action.
Hamas said that the UN’s declaration of a famine in Gaza was a “stain” on Israel and its supporters, demanding immediate action to stop the war and open the crossings.
The IPC explained that more than half a million people in Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions per five of the IPC, characterized by “extreme hunger,” death, destitution, and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition.
It added that another 1.07 million people (54 percent of the population) are facing Phase Four of its classification, which is “emergency” acute food insecurity, and 396,000 (20 percent of the population) are facing Phase Three, which is acute food insecurity.
Fletcher said that the famine in Gaza is a collective disgrace, and the world must act, adding: “Avoiding famine in Gaza was possible, but our work was obstructed.”
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that the famine in Gaza is deliberate and a direct result of Israel’s months-long ban on the entry of food and essential supplies.
Hamas affirmed in a statement that the official declaration of famine in Gaza is a damning international testimony of Israel’s crimes against two million besieged people.
It described this declaration to be outright confirmation of the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe facing the Palestinian people as a result of the ongoing Israeli war, which uses starvation as a tool of war and genocide against civilians.
