Several areas of Gaza have reached the highest level, that of “catastrophe”, on the United Nations scale on food insecurity, due to famine in the north and south of the Palestinian Strip.
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The UN, governments and non-governmental organizations, such as Action Against Hungerthey elaborate this scale in which the Palestinian enclave reaches the highest level in those areas after more than two and a half months of Israeli military offensive.
“The lack of food is so extreme that one in four households in Gaza suffers from starvation, alarmingly high rates of acute malnutrition among the youngest children and significant excess mortality,” Action Against Hunger warned this Thursday.
Most humanitarian organizations have reduced their operations to a minimum in Gaza after the attacks resumed after the November truce, according to a statement from this NGO that works in the enclave.
Many of the estimated 1.9 million displaced Gazans, 85% of its population, are taking refuge in the south, in places such as Rafah, where not even those designated by Israel as humanitarian zones have escaped the bombings.
(Continue reading: War between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has already left 20,000 Palestinians dead, according to Hamas).
The declaration of “very high risk” of famine affects the north of Gaza and the thousands of displaced people in the south“one of the most densely populated areas in the world, where half of the population are children,” according to the NGO.
In recent decades there have only been four declarations of famine: in South Sudan (2017)Somalia (2011), North Korea (1995) and Ethiopia (1984).
In Gaza, more than 90% of its population, of some 2.3 million inhabitants, is in a crisis phase, emergency or humanitarian catastrophe due to hunger. “Virtually all households in Gaza skip meals every day,” the NGO warned, and especially in the north and among displaced people in the south “families spend entire days and nights without eating anything.”
“Hunger should never be used as a weapon of war,” denounced this organization, because in addition to leading to death, it causes severe physical and psychological deterioration.
“Not enough aid is reaching Gaza,” he warned about the difficulties in accessing humanitarian assistance through the only two posts enabled in southern Gaza.
“The “The combination of incessant bombing, shortages of food, water, fuel and the inability of humanitarian agencies to operate in Gaza has led us to this desperate situation.”lamented Chiara Saccardi, head of Action Against Hunger in the Middle East, quoted in the statement.
“It is difficult to find flour and rice and people must wait hours to have access to latrines and to wash. We are experiencing a level of complexity in this emergency like I have never seen,” he added.
Saccardi reported that “people are angry, depressed and desperate (…). They are very afraid.”
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Action Against Hunger reiterated its call for a permanent ceasefire “with the utmost urgency”, so that “a meaningful humanitarian response” is possible if the international community “wants to prevent people from dying of hunger.”
The Human Rights Watch organization also accused Israel this week of using hunger and thirst as a weapon of war in its offensive inside the Gaza Strip.
EFE
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