At least a quarter of Gaza’s population is “one step away from famine,” a U.N. aid official warned, as aid groups say people are so hungry they are resorting to eating leaves, food for donkeys and food scraps.
One in six children under 2 years old in northern Gaza, where the United Nations says it has not been able to deliver any aid since earlier this month due to security risks and Israeli restrictions, suffers from acute malnutrition, official Ramesh said. Rajasingham. he told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
His comments came on the same day that Gaza’s Health Ministry said a total of six children had died from what it described as dehydration and malnutrition, including two babies at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The ministry did not provide further details.
Fighting, war damage and Israeli restrictions on the entry of essential goods into Gaza have decimated the territory’s ability to feed itself through agriculture, livestock and fishing, Rajasingham said.
Farmers have had to abandon their crops to flee the fighting or because there is not enough water to sustain them; livestock have died in fighting or perished from lack of food and water; Fishing, once an important source of food and income for Gazans, is now impossible, he said.
His comments echoed a new World Bank report that found Gaza’s total economic output had fallen by more than 80 percent in the last quarter of 2023, calling it “one of the largest economic crises ever recorded in recent history.”
Between 80 and 96 percent of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the World Bank report. About 80 percent of the population has lost their jobs, the report said, adding that “all Gaza residents will live in poverty” in the short term.
This makes Gazans heavily dependent on aid, which is extremely difficult to obtain.
U.N. and aid group officials say aid can generally reach Rafah, in the southernmost part of Gaza, but little of it has reached northern Gaza, which fighting and Israeli military restrictions have largely isolated. measure of the rest of the territory since then. early in the war. One of the two crossings where aid trucks enter Gaza has been closed repeatedly in recent weeks.
The Israeli agency that oversees the Palestinian territories has previously denied that it is blocking aid to Gaza, and Israeli officials have accused Hamas of confiscating some supplies.
Aid groups “faced overwhelming obstacles just to get minimal supplies to Gaza,” Rajasingham said. “If nothing is done, we fear that widespread famine in Gaza will be almost inevitable.”
The UN says a famine can be considered if 20 percent of households in an area face extreme food shortages, if 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and if two adults or four children out of every 10,000 They die every day from hunger or malnutrition and disease.
The breakdown of law and order has also made distribution difficult, with desperate Gazans seizing food from trucks and occasionally attacking drivers. Damaged roads and unexploded ordnance have cut off supply routes. Aid workers have been killed.
Earlier this month, the World Food Program announced it would suspend food aid deliveries to the north after its trucks were attacked there and attacked by desperate Gazans.
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Aaron Boxerman and Ameera Harouda contributed with reports.