Humanitarian organizations say they are still unable to deliver enough supplies or distribute them safely, especially in the north.
Acute food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have already exceeded famine levels, and without an immediate ceasefire and food supplies to areas cut off military operations, massive loss of life is inevitable, the World Hunger Monitoring Center reported on March 18.
Reuters writes about this.
Famine in Gaza
According to the Integrated Phase Classification of Food Security (IPC), which is assessed by UN agencies, 70% of people in parts of northern Gaza suffer from severe food insecurity, more than triple the 20% threshold considered famine.
IPC says it does not have sufficient data on mortality rates, but it estimates that Gazans will inevitably die from hunger, which is defined as two people out of every 10,000 who die daily from hunger or from malnutrition and disease.
Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that 27 children and three adults have died from malnutrition to date.
“Action necessary to prevent famine requires an immediate political decision to ceasefire, as well as a significant and immediate increase in humanitarian and commercial access to the entire population of Gaza,” it said.
In total, 1.1 million Gazans, about half the population, are experiencing “catastrophic” food shortages, with some 300,000 of them now facing the prospect of starvation.
The prospect of a man-made famine in Gaza has sparked the sharpest criticism of Israel from Western allies since it launched a war against Hamas militants following their deadly attack on Israeli territory on October 7.
“In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine. We are in a state of famine… Hunger is being used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at a conference in Brussels on aid to Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded by saying that Borrell must stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas' crimes.
Israel has allowed “major humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza by land, air and sea for anyone willing to help,” Katz said on Platform X (formerly Twitter), and that aid was ” brutally thwarted” by Hamas militants for “assistance” of the UN Agency in providing assistance to UNRWA.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the IPC report a “terrible indictment” and said Israel must allow full and unhindered access to all parts of Gaza.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he would study the report carefully: “It is clear that the status quo is unsustainable. We need urgent action to avoid famine.”
Israel, which initially allowed aid into Gaza only through two checkpoints on the enclave's southern edge, says it is opening up more land transport routes and also allowing sealifts and airdrops. The first boat of humanitarian aid arrived last week.
Humanitarian organizations say they are still unable to deliver enough supplies or distribute them safely, especially in the north.
Assault on the hospital
In the ruins of Gaza City, Israeli troops began a large-scale assault on Al-Shifa Hospital at night. Once the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, it is now one of the few medical facilities still partially functioning in the north of the territory.
Israel said more than 20 Hamas militants were killed at the hospital, including senior Hamas commander Fayek al-Mabhouh. Hamas said he was a Palestinian police officer tasked with overseeing the protection of humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza.
Negotiations for a ceasefire in the war, now in its sixth month, were to resume on Monday when an Israeli delegation led by the country's intelligence chief traveled to Qatar. But an Israeli official said any agreement would likely take at least another two weeks, a marked disappointment for Washington, which had sought an agreement by the start of the holy month of Ramadan last week.
US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Monday that the military operation in Rafah would deepen anarchy in Gaza, and they agreed that teams from each side would meet in Washington to discuss the issue, the White House said.
Netanyahu has vowed to advance into Rafah on the southern edge of Gaza, where more than half of the territory's 2.3 million residents have taken refuge to escape the Israeli offensive pushing further north.
Biden's Democratic leader in the US Senate last week called on the Israelis to replace Netanyahu, saying he was undermining Israel's international credibility by allowing too much suffering in Gaza.
The war began when Hamas militants swept into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli estimates. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 31,000 Gazans, according to Palestinian health officials.
Special forces
The Israeli military said special forces, supported by infantry and tanks, carried out a “precision operation” on the grounds of Al-Shifa Hospital, based on intelligence that the hospital was being used by Hamas leaders.< /p>
“We have detained more than 200 terrorism suspects who are now being interrogated,” said IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. According to him, one Israeli soldier died during the fighting.
Local residents described some of the fiercest fighting in northern Gaza in recent months. Mohammed Ali, 32, a father of two who lives near the hospital, told Reuters via a chat app that the sound of the assault woke up neighbors around 1 a.m.
“Soon the tanks started rolling in, they came from the western road and headed towards Al Shifa, then the sounds of gunfire and explosions intensified,” he said.
Gaza's health ministry said displaced people in the hospital died in a fire caused by the raid.
Recall, the Israeli offensive on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip will make it “very difficult” to maintain peace in the region due to a large number of civilian casualties are likely, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on March 17 after talks with King Abdullah of Jordan.
Read the leading news of the day:
Related topics:
More news
