#Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)

[stuckinapril]

Reuters published a heartbreaking article yesterday (March 19) about northern Gaza being officially on the verge of famine, with the the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) stating that it’s likely to hit anywhere between now and May at the latest. That’s less than two months from now. Israel responds to this by not only failing to acknowledge the starvation they have wrought altogether, but also by going so far as to state that Israel “not refused a single shipment of medical supplies.” Meanwhile, tent cities have become breeding grounds for diseases of all kinds, because there’s no longer any clean water available and people are forced to live in extremely crammed spaces. 90% of children under 5 in Gaza are now suffering various diseases. 90% of children. Let that sink in.

[sayruq]

As Gaza spirals toward full-scale famine, displaced civilians and health workers told CNN they go hungry so their children can eat what little is available. If Palestinians find water, it is likely undrinkable. When relief trucks trickle into the strip, people clamber over each other to grab aid. Children living on the streets, after being forced from their homes by Israel’s bombardment, cry and fight over stale bread. Others reportedly walk for hours in the cold searching for food, risking exposure to Israeli strikes. Even before the war, two out of three people in Gaza relied on food support, Arif Husain, the chief economist at the World Food Programme (WFP), told CNN. Palestinians have lived through 17 years of partial blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. Israel’s bombardment and siege since October 7 has drastically diminished vital supplies in Gaza, leaving the entire population of some 2.2 million exposed to high levels of acute food insecurity or worse, according to the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC), which assesses global food insecurity and malnutrition. Martin Griffiths, the UN’s emergency relief chief, told CNN the “great majority” of 400,000 Gazans characterized by UN agencies as at risk of starving “are actually in famine.” UN human rights experts have warned “Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people.”

[odinsblog]

THIS WEEK, WASHINGTON’S top Israel lobby is rallying its supporters to go to Capitol Hill and falsely claim to lawmakers that people aren’t starving in Gaza and Israel isn’t blocking aid shipments, according to talking points obtained by the American Prospect.

Israel has led a brutal siege on Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,139 Israelis and kidnapped more than 200. More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, 2 million have been internally displaced, and hundreds of thousands are at imminent risk of famine, according to the United Nations.

The powerful lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, is working to maintain support for Israel’s war, amid increased protests and public outcry. This week, AIPAC convened in Maryland for its annual policy conference, which it uses to marshal its donors and supporters to serve as a grassroots lobbying army in the halls of Congress.

The Prospect obtained a copy of AIPAC’s talking points for supporters heading to the Hill — and they are extreme, to say the least. The documents instruct supporters to claim that “reports that people are starving in Gaza are false,” and say that “Israel is not blocking the delivery of aid to Gaza.”

The AIPAC talking points additionally claim that Hamas wants people to believe Gazans are starving in order to “exert pressure” on Israel, and argues the “United States must not fall into Hamas’ trap.”

These claims from AIPAC are false. Gazans are starving on a massive, unprecedented scale. According to the United Nations, 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza — almost the entire population of the region — are facing “crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.” Half a million of those included in that figure face “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) — a leading food security analysis and advocacy group — classifies the Gaza Strip as being in Phase 4 “Emergency” status food insecurity, with a high risk of imminent famine conditions.

(continue reading)

[good-old-gossip]

A global food monitor has found that famine has taken hold at a camp for displaced people in Sudan ’s North Darfur and is likely to spread to other parts of the region.

In its report, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) concluded that famine was occurring in the Zamzam camp that shelters an estimated 500,000 International Displaced People (IDPs), and is likely to persist there at least until October.

According to the report, famine conditions have prevailed at the camp as of June and July in Zamzam, which lies near North Darfur’s capital, El-Fasher.

“The FRC found that two out of three critical requirements to classify Famine - acute malnutrition and mortality rates - have been surpassed, confirming Famine, based on reasonable evidence,” the report read.

Famine is determined by the Integrated Food Security Security Phase Classification (IPC), the UN’s hunger monitoring body and the main global reference for assessing the severity of food crises.

This is just the third time the IPC has made a famine determination since the system was implemented 20 years ago.

According to the report, the population of Zamzam has swelled to half a million in just a few weeks, after the camp absorbed almost half of the 320,000 people believed to have been displaced in El-Fasher since mid-April.

The experts identified conflict and restricted humanitarian access as drivers of the famine conditions.

The designation comes over a year after the start of a war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has caused mass displacement and a rapidly deteriorating food security situation.

“Famine conditions will only worsen and be further prolonged if conflict continues and humanitarian and full commercial access is not made possible,” the report warned.

The experts said their analysis was limited to Zamzam due to limited data but emphasised that other areas of the region, particularly the Abu Shouk and al-Salam camps, were also potentially experiencing famine and would remain at risk as long as the war continues.

[thebrownart]

There are no words to describe the hunger that people are enduring in Gaza, according to Ali, a Palestinian in Gaza.

Residents of the Palestinian enclave say Israeli authorities are severely restricting life-saving food deliveries once again, bringing back the extreme conditions experienced in March, leading to the death of at least four children from malnutrition just last week.

The UN's hunger monitoring system, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), released a report on Tuesday showing that a "high risk of famine persists across the whole Gaza Strip".

The report said more than 20% of the Palestinian enclave's population, over 495,000, are now facing "catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity" involving "an extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion".

The IPC found that while aid deliveries to northern Gaza increased in March and April, and found their way to the south too, the situation had deteriorated in recent weeks.

The report found that over half of households in Gaza reported that they often have no food to eat in the house, and over 20% go entire days and nights without eating.

"We don't know how much more can we endure of this," says Ali. "Every day we fall apart and break down. Every day is worse than the day before it."

(the linktree to donate for the people of Palestine is in my bio)

(✍🏾: Lubna Masarwa, MEE)

[jewishvitya]

From this.

Extreme food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have already exceeded famine levels, and mass death is now imminent without an immediate ceasefire and surge of food to areas cut off by fighting, the global hunger monitor said on Monday.

The Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), whose assessments are relied on by U.N. agencies, said 70% of people in parts of northern Gaza were suffering the most severe level of food shortage, more than triple the 20% threshold to be considered famine.

The IPC said it did not have enough data on death rates, but estimated residents would be dying at famine scale imminently, defined as two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.

Gaza's health ministry has said 27 children and three adults have died so far from malnutrition.

Very low energy to put together my own words, but they're still being starved. Airdrops are practically nothing. How many months can a population be expected to suffer through this.

Ceasefire now.

A picture I saved a couple of days ago, I don't remember where from, but it was taken in Tel Aviv.

Translation: 40,000 people are murdered in Gaza. Where is your red line?

I don't think this is the number, but. It's good to see in Tel Aviv.

[tearsinthemist]

Large Sudan displaced people camp 'in famine'

What happened The civil war in Sudan has caused famine in a camp housing half a million displaced people in the country's North Darfur region, according to a report by an independent group of food security experts. Who said what At least 500,000 people at Zamzam camp, near the besieged Darfur city of El Fasher, are experiencing "the worst form of hunger," said the United Nations-backed report. This marks just the "third time a famine determination has been made" since the internationally recognized standard known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system was set up 20 years ago, said Al Jazeera. Sudan's civil war has created "the world's largest humanitarian crisis," forcing 10 million people from their homes, said the BBC. What next? Famine conditions are likely to persist until at least the October harvest season, experts warned. The fear now is that even then the hunger crisis will not ease much as the conflict has also "damaged farmlands," said The New York Times.

[troythecatfish]

96% of Palestinians in Gaza face

"extreme levels of hunger"

According to the World Food Programme (WFP) 's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report around 2.13M across Gaza face high levels of acute food insecurity, while nearly half a million experience catastrophic food insecurity.

Source: Mintpress

[survivingcapitalism]

CAIRO/JERUSALEM/LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Extreme food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have already exceeded famine levels, and mass death is now imminent without an immediate ceasefire and surge of food to areas cut off by fighting, the global hunger monitor said on Monday.

The Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), whose assessments are relied on by U.N. agencies, said 70% of people in parts of northern Gaza were suffering the most severe level of food shortage, more than triple the 20% threshold to be considered famine.

The IPC said it did not have enough data on death rates, but estimated residents would be dying at famine scale imminently, defined as two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.

Gaza's health ministry has said 27 children and three adults have died so far from malnutrition.

"The actions needed to prevent famine require an immediate political decision for a ceasefire together with a significant and immediate increase in humanitarian and commercial access to the entire population of Gaza," it said.

In all, 1.1 million Gazans, around half the population, were experiencing "catastrophic" shortages of food, with around 300,000 in the areas now facing the prospect of famine-scale death rates.

The prospect of a manmade famine in Gaza has brought the strongest criticism of Israel from Western allies since it launched its war against Hamas militants following their deadly attack on Israeli territory on Oct. 7.

"In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine. We are in a state of famine... Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at a Brussels conference on aid for Gaza.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-suffers-famine-level-shortages-mass-death-imminent-un-backed-monitor-says-2024-03-18/

[kp777]

June 30, 2024

Sudan is facing horror “beyond imagination”, the outgoing UN aid chief has warned, with 750,000 people under imminent threat of famine and with conditions in danger of worsening even further.

The British diplomat Martin Griffiths will retire from his job as the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs at a time when famine on a historic scale is looming over Sudan and Gaza.

Griffiths told the Guardian that while Gaza is the subject of intense media coverage and diplomatic effort (albeit unsuccessful so far), another – potentially much larger – human-made tragedy is unfolding in Sudan, largely out of the world’s sight, and with little sign of diplomatic progress.

Statistics published on Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) showed that 495,000 Palestinians in Gaza face catastrophic conditions, defined as an “extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities”, over the coming six months.

Over the same period, the panel of experts estimated that 755,262 people in Sudan face the same “phase 5” catastrophic conditions, while a further 8.5 million Sudanese face a “phase 4” emergency, defined as a state where “acute malnutrition and disease levels are excessively high, and the risk of hunger-related death is rapidly increasing”.

“These are staggering numbers. It’s beyond imagination,” said Griffiths, a British diplomat. “I think historically it is a huge moment.”

Read more.

[girlactionfigure]

🟤 Thu morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

▪️NO FAMINE IN GAZA.. there is currently no famine in Gaza, a new report by the key Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) organization has found.  The study found no evidence of deaths from starvation.  (( Now to google “famine in Gaza” and see the hundreds of primary sources and articles repeating the lie - even CNN yesterday. )) https://www.timesofisrael.com/key-food-security-org-finds-no-famine-in-gaza-says-previous-assumptions-wrong/

▪️DESTROYED BUILDINGS IN GAZA.. UN and MSM say 70% of buildings in Gaza destroyed.  Official IDF data: 16% of permanent buildings destroyed, 36% of temporary buildings (like sheds) destroyed.  

▪️LIES ALL THE WAY DOWN.. The 70% figures above on buildings, together with the fake famine, all of which are touted by the mainstream media and the UN on the basis of complete LIES from Hamas - - are also the basis for international outrage, UN condemnations, and the International Court of Justice’s rulings.  It’s LIES all the way down.

▪️NO, YOU CAN’T HAVE BOMBS, YOU MIGHT DEFEND YOURSELF WITH THEM.. The Biden administration made it clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that the shipment of heavy bombs from the United States that was stopped, will not be transferred in full to Israel even after the operation in Rafah is over.

The American concern is that additional arms shipments to Israel will be used to open a front in the north. In an attempt to calm the American administration, an Israeli commitment to diplomatic exhaustion. Accordingly, Israel's commitments to the Americans, in order to receive additional arms shipments, is a negotiation for a political solution in Lebanon at the end of the operation in Rafah and the use of weapons in a "measured" manner in accordance with the US requirement. (N12)

▪️SOCIETY.. as expected, charedi institutions and senior leaders start coming out with statements against conscription following the High Court ruling and Attorney General’s demand the IDF immediately recruit: “the Hasidim of Belz inform you - the Torah students will not be drafted and if, God forbid, they force them to be drafted into the army, all the Rebbe’s and rabbis here will go to jail in their place.”

▪️HOUTHIS STEAL PLANES.. the Houthis have stolen 4 Airbus A330 planes from the Yemen national airline, as well as stealing the maintenance fund for planes from the airline (over $100 million).  Yemen pilgrims are stuck in Saudi Arabia after the Hajj… and what are the Houthis planning with 4 commercial passenger planes?

▪️US ANTI-SEMITISM.. pro-Hamas rioter boardesthe subway in New York and demanded that all Zionists get off, getting in everyones face and demanding to know if they are a Jew.

▪️VICTIMS DEMAND.. Victims of October 7 petition the High Court: "Demand a State Commission of Inquiry”.

▪️PROTEST - ANTI-GOVT.. blocked Highway 2 to traffic on both sides, in the area of ​​Gesher HaBonim.

♦️IDF AIRSTRIKES LEBANON.. once was a 3-story building in Nabatia in southern Lebanon, 2nd strike in the same town.

♦️IDF AIRSTRIKES DAMASCUS AREA, SYRIA.. Sayda Zeinab area (which Iran operates as a shrine and a military post), a building belonging to the "Jhad al-Banaa" institution - (a real estate entity belonging to Iran and Hezbollah) was attacked near the town of Hajira in southern Damascus, and a military radar station was attacked in Tel Tzahan in the al-Savida area in southern Syria. 

♦️COUNTER-TERROR - JENIN.. overnight large security operation.  Firefights, explosives, IED’s (multiple) detonated - INJURIES - multiple helicopter evacs.  17 warriors injured!

[sayruq]

People in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day - less than a can of fava beans - since January, as Israeli forces continue their military onslaught. Over 300,000 people are believed to still be trapped there, unable to leave. The miniscule amount of food represents less than 12 per cent of the recommended daily 2,100 calorie intake needed per person, calculated using demographic data considering variations by age and gender. Last week, the Israeli government told UNRWA, by far the largest aid provider in Gaza, that its convoys would no longer be allowed into the north. Oxfam’s analysis is based on the latest available data used in the recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis for the Gaza Strip. Oxfam also found that the total food deliveries allowed into Gaza for the entire 2.2 million population - since last October - amounted to an average of just 41 per cent of the daily calories needed per person.

[readingsquotes]

"“The depth of the horror surpasses our ability to describe it,” said James Elder, a spokesperson with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

“As soon as you drive through the north, you get that universal gesture of hunger of people putting their hands to their mouths. A lot of children, women with very gaunt faces. In [the city of] Khan Younis, there is utter annihilation.

“I’ve not seen that level of devastation in 20 years with the UN. People’s coping capacity in the north has been smashed and in the south it is hanging by a thread,” Elder said in an interview on Friday.

Elder said that he saw a dozen “skeletal” children at Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza.

“We are seeing severe malnutrition cases … Children who are on the brink of death, just skin and bones … and these are the ones who have managed to get to hospital. There is a real fear for those that can’t,” Elder said. “This is man-made and preventable.”

Medical staff at the hospital worked 36-hour shifts and then joined their families to search for clean water, food or shelter, Elder said.

...

A report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative(IPC) this week warned that any escalation of the war could push half of Gaza’s total population to the brink of starvation within months. Famine is imminent in northern Gaza, where 70% of people are experiencing catastrophic hunger, the IPC said."

[good-old-gossip]

His evilness will shame the DEVIL!!!

Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich has said letting two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip die of hunger might be “justified and moral”.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Israel Hayom outlet on Monday, he expressed support for blocking aid to the Gaza Strip but said Israel lacked international legitimacy to do so.

“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” the far-right minister said, according to the Times of Israel.

“We can't, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” he added.

He said that Israel needed “international legitimacy for this war”.

For nearly 10 months, the Israeli military has imposed a tight siege on the Gaza Strip, extremely limiting the flow of life-saving essential food and medical items.

Aid delivery is scarce, unprotected and restricted. In June, independent UN investigators said Israel was using starvation on the Palestinian population as a weapon of war.

The hunger crisis has led to the death of dozens of people due to malnutrition, mostly children. A high risk of famine persists across the Gaza Strip as almost the entire population faces high levels of acute food insecurity or worse, including half a million suffering starvation, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in June.

Smotrich is one of many Israeli ministers and officials who have made statements described as genocidal against Gaza's Palestinians since 7 October.

On 9 October, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was fighting “human animals” as he announced a “complete siege” on Gaza. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Gallant said.

Other ministers and officials have advocated using a nuclear bomb on Gaza, turning the enclave into a “slaughterhouse” and “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth”.

South Africa said these statements are evidence of genocidal intent in its ongoing case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Israel denies the accusation of genocide.

Smotrich has also been accused of making genocidal statements about the occupied West Bank.

In March 2023, he said the Palestinian village of Huwwara near Nablus "needs to be wiped out".

[capybaracorn]

ROME/GENEVA/NEW YORK – As the risk of famine grows, and more people are exposed to deadly disease outbreaks, a fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza is urgently needed, United Nations agencies warned today. The heads of the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) say that getting enough supplies into and across Gaza now depends on: the opening of new entry routes; more trucks being allowed through border checks each day; fewer restrictions on the movement of humanitarian workers; and guarantees of safety for people accessing and distributing aid.

Without the ability to produce or import food, the entire population of Gaza relies on aid to survive. But humanitarian aid alone cannot meet the essential needs of the Gaza people. The United Nations, international aid agencies and non-governmental organizations have so far managed to deliver limited humanitarian assistance in Gaza, despite extraordinarily difficult conditions, but the quantities fall far short of what is needed to prevent a deadly combination of hunger, malnutrition, and disease. The shortage of food, clean water, and medical assistance is particularly severe in the northern areas.

Humanitarian action is seriously limited by the closure of all but two border crossings in the south and the multi-layered vetting process for trucks coming into Gaza. Once inside, efforts to set up service points for people in need are hampered by bombardments and constantly shifting battle fronts, which endanger the lives of ordinary Gazans and the UN and other humanitarian personnel striving to help them.

“People in Gaza risk dying of hunger just miles from trucks filled with food,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. “Every hour lost puts countless lives at risk. We can keep famine at bay but only if we can deliver sufficient supplies and have safe access to everyone in need, wherever they are.”

The latest Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC) report found devastating levels of food insecurity in Gaza and confirmed that the entire population of Gaza – roughly 2.2 million people – are in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity. Virtually all Palestinians in Gaza are skipping meals every day while many adults go hungry so children can eat, and the report warned of famine, if current conditions persist.

WFP has been providing food to people inside Gaza every day since 7 October and reached more than 900,000 people with food assistance in December. This has required pivoting to new ways of operating with local partners, including finding safe sites for distributions, channelling wheat flour into bakeries so that they can resume production, and distributing special food supplements to help children fight off malnutrition. On Thursday, WFP’s first food convoy to North Gaza since the humanitarian pause delivered food supplies for around 8,000 people.

The conflict has also damaged or destroyed essential water, sanitation and health infrastructure and services and limited capacity to treat severe malnutrition and infectious disease outbreaks. With Gaza’s 335,000 children under 5 years of age especially vulnerable, UNICEF projects that, in the next few weeks, child wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition in children, could increase from pre-crisis conditions by nearly 30 per cent, affecting up to 10,000 children.

“Children at high risk of dying from malnutrition and disease desperately need medical treatment, clean water and sanitation services, but the conditions on the ground do not allow us to safely reach children and families in need,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.  “Some of the material we desperately need to repair and increase water supply remain restricted from entering Gaza. The lives of children and their families are hanging in the balance. Every minute counts.”

UNICEF has been warning since November that children in southern Gaza are accessing only 1.5 to 2 litres of water per day, well below the recommended requirements for survival. To address this, UNICEF and partners have provided safe drinking water to over 1.3 million people, but much more is needed to address the desperate conditions. UNICEF has also provided medical supplies, including 600,000 doses of vaccine, nutritional supplements and vitamins to children and pregnant women, and humanitarian cash transfers to over 500,000 households.

Since the start of the hostilities, WHO and partners have been supporting the health system in Gaza with deliveries of medical equipment and supplies, medicines, fuel; coordination of emergency medical teams; and disease surveillance. There have been more than a dozen high-risk missions to deliver supplies to hospitals in northern and southern Gaza.  WHO and partners helped establish two kitchens at Al-Shifa hospital, now serving 1200 meals a day and delivered medical supplies to support treatment for up to 1,250 children with severe acute malnutrition, and the establishment of therapeutic feeding centres.

“People in Gaza are suffering from a lack of food, water, medicines and adequate healthcare. Famine will make an already terrible situation catastrophic because sick people are more likely to succumb to starvation and starving people are more vulnerable to disease”, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We need unimpeded, safe access to deliver aid and a humanitarian ceasefire to prevent further death and suffering.” 

Israeli authorization to use a working port close to the Gaza Strip and border crossing points into the north is critically needed by aid agencies. Access to Ashdod port, roughly 40 km to the north, would enable significantly larger quantities of aid to be shipped in and then trucked directly to the badly affected northern regions of Gaza, which few convoys have managed to reach.

“The flow of aid has been a trickle in comparison to a sea of humanitarian needs,” said Phillipe Lazzarini, Commissioner General for the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA).  “Humanitarian aid will not be enough to reverse the worsening hunger among the population. Commercial supplies are a must to allow the markets and private sector to re-open and provide an alternative to food accessibility.”

The three agency heads emphasize the urgent need to lift the barriers and restrictions on aid delivery to and within Gaza, and for commercial traffic to resume. They reiterate the call for a humanitarian ceasefire to enable this vitally important roll-out of a massive, multi-agency humanitarian operation.

[workersolidarity]

🇵🇸 🚨UNICEF WARNS GAZA'S CHILDREN AT SEVERE RISK OF MALNUTRITION AS THE ISRAELI GENOCIDE CONTINUES

Via@WafaNewsAgency

UNICEF warned yesterday that acute food insecurity puts all children under five in the Gaza Strip—335,000—at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death.

“Yesterday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned the world of the very high risk of famine in the Gaza Strip, increasing every day if the situation persists. Specifically, the IPC report said at least 1 in 4 households in the Gaza Strip, or more than half a million people, are facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, the highest level of warning,” said UNICEF in a statement.

“These entirely manmade, foreseeable, and preventable catastrophic conditions mean that children and families in the Gaza Strip are now facing violence from the air, and deprivation from the ground—with potentially the worst yet to come,” it added.

“The report also said that almost 1.2 million people are experiencing emergency levels of acute food insecurity and acknowledged that famine thresholds for acute food insecurity have already been exceeded. In short, this means for many families in Gaza, the threat of dying from hunger is already real.

“These findings imply that all children under five in the Gaza Strip—335,000—are at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death as the risk of famine conditions continues to increase. UNICEF estimates that in the coming weeks, at least 10,000 children under five years will suffer the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, known as severe wasting, and will need therapeutic foods,” the UN children’s organization.

“This unacceptable risk comes at a time when the Gaza Strip’s food and health systems are facing complete collapse. More than 80 percent of young children are experiencing severe food poverty, and more than two-thirds of hospitals are no longer functioning because of the lack of fuel, water, and vital medical supplies or because they sustained catastrophic damage in attacks,” it said.

UNICEF said it was also particularly concerned about the nutrition of over 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as for over 135,000 children under two, given their specific nutrition needs, which are compounded by stress and trauma.

It said, however, that based on the IPC report, these conditions do not have to persist. “Yesterday's warning of famine in the coming weeks and months can still be averted. But we must act now.

“We need an immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire so that humanitarian actors can support the strengthening and restoring of essential services across the Gaza Strip, allowing vulnerable children to meet their basic nutrition and health needs. These include the provision of infant milk, food and nutrient supplements, and ready-to-use therapeutic foods for the early prevention, detection and treatment of severe malnutrition, as well as water, medical supplies and fuel, and resumption of commercial traffic.

“We need the restoration of critical infrastructure, including hospitals, so young children, pregnant women and injured patients can safely access life-saving treatment and care.”

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews