UN agencies on Monday warned of a growing risk of famine in the Gaza Strip, where renewed Israeli military operations and continued aid blockade have left the entire population acutely food insecure.
A statement by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pointed to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) finding and stated: “470,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5), and the entire population is experiencing acute food insecurity.”
The report also projects that at least 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.
“The risk of famine does not arrive suddenly. It unfolds in places where access to food is blocked, where health systems are decimated, and where children are left without the bare minimum to survive. Hunger and acute malnutrition are a daily reality for children across the Gaza Strip,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell in a statement.
The statement by UNICEF noted that the border crossings into Gaza have remained closed since March 2, with over 116,000 metric tons of food assistance—enough to feed one million people for four months—stuck outside the enclave.
The World Food Program (WFP) said its last food stocks ran out on April 25.
“Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border. We can’t get it to them because of the renewed conflict and the total ban on humanitarian aid imposed in early March,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain in the same statement.
“UNICEF and WFP urge all parties to prioritize the needs of civilians and allow aid to enter Gaza immediately and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law,” the statement added.
Since March 2, Israel has kept Gaza crossings closed to food, medical, and humanitarian aid, deepening an already humanitarian crisis in the enclave, according to government, human rights, and international reports.
More than 52,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.