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The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has issued a terrible warning, describing a deeper humanitarian disaster in Gaza which is proportional to the famous hunger of Biafra and Ethiopia, which claimed more than two million people in the 20th century.
“This is not like anything we have seen in this century,” said Ross Smith, Director of Emergency WFP, during the Press Briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
“This reminds us of the previous disaster in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century,” added Smith, spoke from Rome.
Hunger in Ethiopia from 1983 to 1984 resulted in more than one million deaths, while Biafran’s hunger during the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970 also caused more than one million deaths.
Smith’s comments came only a few hours after the Integrated Food Safety Phase initiative (IPC) supported by the United Nations announced that “The worst scenario of hunger is now on the Gaza Strip.” IPC warns that urgent and unlimited humanitarian access is very important to prevent “more hunger and death.”
Although the IPC stopped declaring the official hunger classification, it confirmed that the “famine threshold” had been achieved in most Gaza.
“The indicators become worse dramatically,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of WFP Security and Nutrition Analysis. He noted that the latest findings show “indicators of consumption and nutrition of food have now reached their worst level since the beginning of the conflict,” which erupted after the attack led by Hamas against Israel on 7 October 2023.
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“In July, for the first time from the beginning of the crisis, the malnutrition level has exceeded the threshold of hunger in the city of Gaza,” Bauer said. “What we see is the peak of evidence that hunger is there,” he added, calling for “immediate action … to prevent large human suffering.”
The humanitarian crisis was exacerbated by the total Israeli blockade which was forced on Gaza in March, after the ceasefire negotiation collapsed. Although some aid dripping from the end of May, the volume remains very low.
The UN woman highlighted a severe impact on women and girls, who were grave with what was described as “impossible choice.”
“They faced an impossible choice to starve to death in their shelter, or wander to find food and water with extreme risk of being killed,” spokesman Sofia Calltorp said. “Children are starving to death in front of their eyes,” he added.
During the weekend, Israel announced “tactical pause” in military operations in several parts of Gaza, which allowed more than 120 food trucks to the region. Some assistance has also been delivered through air through initiatives by countries such as Jordan and United Arab Emirates.
But Smith stressed that air drop was not a substitute for sustainable assistance by land.
“This carries extreme risk for populations,” he said, a warning of injury which was caused by a decrease in assistance. “We have a practical solution that is waiting, ready at the Gaza border at the intersection point and is ready to move,” he added.
Apart from some shipping, the crisis continues to increase, attract parallel with the most haunted mass of mass hunger episodes.
