Fear of Gaza famine (1) infographic
Graphic shows the Gaza Strip and details the current state of malnutrition
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CONFLICT

Fear of fam­ine rises in Gaza

By Duncan Mil

August 20, 2024 - Children in the northern Gaza Strip are dying of malnutrition -- a signal of mass starvation to come. The World Food Pro­gramme (WFP) can bring in only half the quant­ity of aid required.

Save the Children, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), estimates about 21,000 children are missing in Gaza, including 17,000 unaccompanied and separated children and 4,000 children buried under the rubble.

“The scale of suffering among Gaza’s children is unimaginable,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said, calling for immediate international action to protect these vulnerable young lives.

The IPC acute food insecurity analysis states a high risk of famine persists across the Gaza Strip as long as conflict continues and humanitarian access is restricted.

About 96 per cent of the population in the Gaza Strip (2.15 million people) face high levels of acute food insecurity through September 2024.

Over 495,000 people (22 per cent of the population) are facing “catastrophic” levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 5 -- starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident).

The conflict, which broke out after Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 2023, has escalated into one of the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history, with the death toll surpassing 40,000.

The “unimaginable” plight in Gaza “is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war,” Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 20/08/2024; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Getty Images
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